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From Coin-op to CPC Join ACU ot Images to experience
the agonies and ecstacies of game conversion. i

The excellent Fen School Four series gets the ACU going over
in Bomb Alley^ alongside oil of the up-to-the minute game i
blasts to hit the CPC screen. Don't miss out! M

770952

The Quality Mogaiine for Users of CPQ GX4000 & CPC PIUS

QUAn'W

EDnXJRIAl

£1

1.6

THEE

tiST VALUE

COMPUTER

EXAMPLE

ysmg \pyslKH, and
Foe* Ewdai

RHjMT

• Simpiv plug 3Jiy ^arKiarcE 9-Ptfi
Joystick into the caWe suppled

+ Connect the Foot F^aE mio your
Computer - Amiga ST. CS^. 120.
Vic20, Amsfrad CPC, Spectrum
(with inlertacet, 80C LWhth
iinleffac#k

* The Fool P^aJ ts now ready to

SLOW

P«jHT

This settmfl tfarvst^ifs the
yp, Ocwn and hr# OdrUPOtS
iiom JdyoliCii to X 2. i
triJHDns of Fdot RHial
fcspeciiwiy.

SLOW

Som etime s just using a

Joystick is not enough to
beat today’s generation ot -
Computer games . i.

; *’*®^*^ The Foot Pedal Controlier

:- —I--—Twofks m conjunction with a Joystick

By aligning apy three of the Joystick functions to

synchronise vVith the Foot Pedats it enhances any
multHun<i;tionakgame that-inckides flying, driving or playing

be the same . .. |

playing will never

ssvmA

'iai crci tJriTr iwt aki bno t

fipEp IIJNIT. ^ NOR|HRELp tNDUSTRIAL ESTAT^- SEMEiS F(

TCi cbur^Mii. dm/Vi4^ .. n. nni IQAQ RfS^J^L

BrunLUord

RO^^ niodule £125

The BrLNiWtird BOW Module js a compact unit wr>ich
plugs directly onto the eKpansroo socl^et of th©
CPC6I28 or 6128 Plus* It overcomes the memory
limFtatEofis of the CPC computer by incorporating the
eotire BrunWord Elite system into one very high
cepacHy ROM (256K bytes). The moduie measures
three i-nches wide, halt an inch thrck and ei(tends
>usl two and a half inchies behind the computer,

On th^ HOW have BrunWgrd Ehte^ Headline^
10 Headline fonts (including 'CheSmer' and 'Clactofl'),
9 fonts for downloading to a 24 pin printer,
BrynSpell, 30^000 word dictionary and Into-Script.
Second disc drives owners can have KDS ROWMS
added <not ft12S plus) for £15 extra, and remember
that no ROM box is needed.

Great Poiuer

Plug on the module, switch ON the computer, type
rBW and the whole BrunWord Elite system is in the
computer ready for immediate use. You can type into
the word processor, ched< the spelling, print ft out,
use the database to print labels or search for and
transfer data to the word processor, print using
headline fonts and 24 pin fonts, all without a single
disc Operation^ extepl maybe to load data into
Info-script, ^ny BrirWcxd Elite facility can be used
without upsettSnt other data. You can even view
screen dumps stored or> disc, or forfTie:t a 3 inch or
3.5 inch disc, wittiourt disturbing the text in BrunWord
Of the data in Info-Script.

Printing Pictures

The BrunWord ROM module has a hosl of new
features including five high qu^fity, high speed
screen dump routines for 9 pin and 24 pin printers.
These are Special routines using the BrunWord Elite
8 bil printer status port and they prmt Incredibly
fast compared to desk top publishers* This entire
page incfuifing the drawing^, the large *B^u^Wo^d^
the address, credit card symbols and Teddy^ was
printed using the BrunWord ROM module and a wide
carriage 24 pin printer m one printing operaiKin.

Relatiue Reuerse

For printers with reverse CAmstred DMP2I60, Star
LClO etc), there are now three reference points. The
top of the pagBj the cirrent print head positron and
any point previously defined wilhin the I ext. The
print heed can be moved to e relative position above
or below any of these references. This refinemenl
coupled, with the new ability to tootroF the box
reverse, make cornplex Fay outs much easier to
desigKi and give faster* more efficient printouts.

Small and Light

The BrcrrWord ROW Wodiule has been made as small
and IrQht as- possible - When mounted directly onto
the computer it is very very reliable. You are Hkeiy
to damage the keyboj-d it you jolt it hard enough to
give problems. (Other ROM systems use an unwieldy
ROM box which can ^crash' with even the slightest
knockK

Very Serious

The BrunWord ROW Module Is perfect for the basic
machine, you need no other add ons. However,
anyone who has two disc drives knows Ihe
frustration of inserting a disc, asking to Fosd a file
and being told that the other drive has no disc an it.
You sImpFy forgot to inform the computer to change
over drives. You know there's no disc in the other
drive* the computer now knows, so what's the
problem? The software doesn't test both drives!!!
That's now a thing of the past. The BrunWord BOM
Module will load from whichever drive has the disc in
it. It's simple arKf It's brilliant, and if your second
drive is a 3.5 inch, you can use the fast file system
which loads a 64K file into Info-Bcript ia 7 seconds
or (with extra memory) a 256K file in 16 secoods.

Quote

totafiy briW/arTf..-. carr/es on ftw
user ffiendliness of Brumiug products to a very
high one af tfwse dttia gems

plugged info the beck af my CFC fight m?w. As
you csn Imagine^ anything that passes through
the ACiJ office 0*1 expect to come in for a hard
time and^ i can safety say that to dafe^ the
BrunWord ROM has performed in an exempiary
fashiort on ah trontE^*

Chris Knight (AOU Editor) - ACU August l99t.

BrunUJord G 12 S £30

CoFtiplet« word pretttsing pifk-ag» (disc) wilh word
4|^«lling fhfck*f ind <ard filing jkroijrimmf.
BrunW^rdi 6129 pvrlfrrms a .11 t^ord
the CPC612e. it'? high &psed strepn r^vtliw, gives it i very
ta?t rfrfi|twi?* md th* editor featurei are logically arfsnged Ifl
be ea?y to- learn. The spelling ciitoker, r^ith lU dictionary,
lijwj \n\D eiemofy at fche eerwe time as llw i^ord precesior,
making accass very tonvenierti and exceptionally tas>t. H Is
suppitad with a 40 page iVkofmel end a tutor frk.

Info-ScripT £50

Oompl-ate (fata pro-te&slog trackage (disc), ifvclyding all- the
features dJ flruhWefd 6128 anrf BrunSpeil. The i^&rd
processor and database- can be resid^l to>$ethaf giviw^the
speed afid convenience of access with no 4is^ delays.

9 Pin Elite £55

the Elite system lor 9 pin printers (on disc) Consists *1
BrunWord ENte, SriFiSpe-lk H^dllne, 6 bit prmter status port
«nid y 'type settmg" fonts (fonts are 2d pin n size Ikj-I tor
9 pki prhfitersJn totgl prSce £56 mclusive.

9 Pin EllTe+lnlo £92

The Elite system (on disc) as above iwt including Ififo-Script
and a backup disc. TotaF price i92 kiclusive.

24 Pin EliTe-t-lnTo £9D

BrunWord Elite (en disc)* BrunSpell, Inf-O'^Script^ bacl^ up disc,
B bit staius p«l and 7 'type- setting' tsrtts Cor downloading to
a 34 pin prmter. Total price £90 inclusive.

References

ACU

SEP

1998

Pag* 58/58

- Encryption,

ACU

OCT

1998

Page 56/57

- ■H*«Hine,

ACU

DEC

1998

Page 24/25

- Info-Seriipt.

FEB

1991

Page 13

- BrunWf^rd 6129

ACU

UAi

1991

Page 42/43

- BrunWord Elite-.

ACU

JUN

1991

Page 60/81

- Elils Font Edil*r.

ACU

Ago

1991

Page 30/21

- BrunWbrd POM Mcrikjle.

^WiNiam Taylor'

this deligtiliwl line *awifig by Che*i Hoth#fo Is of iHuitfilions m '&1rawbifTy F*ir*, a book of traditional son^s- and
easy ptan* music, pubfished by A & C Black Ltd. It was Dirt Scanned inifl tw 'scf tens' by agretment.

Send che<jye/PO/Access number/Visa number to:

Brutining Soltware

138 The Street, _

LitUe Clacton, Essex, C016 9LS.
Telephone (0255) 862308

BrunWord 6128 with BfunSpetl S DataFile. , . £30.00
Info-Script with BrunWord 6126 5 BrinSpeM. . £50.00

9 Pin BrunWord Elite . - . ... £55.00

9 Pin BrunWord Elite with Into-^Script..£92,00

24 Pin BrunWord Elite with Info'Script.£90*00

El He Pont Editor with 'Chelmer' S 'QacW, . £25*00
Supplied on 3in Disc for CPC6128 or 6T28 Plus.

* You must state which computer. *

All prices are inclusive tor UK, Overseas orders sent
insured air mail - Europe add £2.50 s Rest add £7.50

Amstrati User March 1392

Amstrad

Repairs

If something is wrong with your
Amstrad CK or PCW, who better to
turn to than the Matioral Repair Centre.

For all repairs to your computer, one low
payment covers diagnosis, repair
(including parts and labour} and delivery
back to you.

The experience and expertise of our
technicians ensures that your computer
is repaired to the highest standard at the
lowest cost.

To schedule a repair
simply call Michelle
on 0733 391234

Please be ready to give your name,
address, computer type, serial number
and the type of fault,

The costs are; CjPC 464 - £ 5 7,45
CPC 6128- £57.45
PCW 8256- £85.00
PCWS5I2- £36.00
PCW 9512- £115.00

All prices are inclusive of VAT, and
payment can be made by cheque, postal
order or credit card.

The National
Repair Centre
0733 391234

FMG House

Newcombe Way, Orton Southgate
Peterborough PE2 OSF

ONE PRICE
COVERS
ALL PARTS
AND
LABOUR

Published by MCM Ltd.

A division of HCPC Ltd.
Panini House I t6^'l20
Goswell Road, London ECl,
Editorial enquiries:

Tel: 0T2i $50539
All other enquiries:

Tei: 071 490 7141

Editor
Chris Knight

Group Technical Editor

John Taytor

Designers
Pad Ellis
Adrian Hulf

Illustrator
Julian Sharp

Group Advertisement Sales
Manager
Lynda Elliott

Advertising Executive

Anastasia Ubaka

Production Controller
Jayne Penfold

Production Assistant

Rachel Diston

Publishing Director
Wendy Palmer

Deputy Managing Director
Ray Lewis

Group Managing Director

Peter Welham

Subscriptions
LAZAHOLD
PO Box 10, Roper Street.
Pailion Ind. Esc.
Sunderland SR4 6SN.

Tel: 091 5to 2290

Yearly rates:

UK £19.80
Europe £34.70
Rest of the World £48.60

Distribution

I PC Marke tforce Tel; 071 261 5000

Colour and Mono Origination
Ebony

Heath lands Industrial Estate
Liskeard, Cornwall
Tel: 0579 46880

Printed and bound

by BPCC, Colchester. Covers
printed by Spottiswoode
Ballantyne, Colchester.

Published on I st Thursday of
month preceding cover date

Amov-aA is a ETa.d«m^ ntvi, vM !itl«

Arriftrid CornfiuUr User, wiElii die pefimJ4£)an£i7

pk Mo pan- of'Ehl5-pdbiHatFG4i may
produced mdiout pcTTrorees While efltirt i%

to Wrture mfriccjunc-t of feaiuyes and Ifsuiifs
esmoi. Miceprt u>y iiabiilEylldr any ini^iakfls •or
ohapriiMt Hw Yiowi-and oplndDfis bf9 not-

necBHafSr tiidst of Amcrad or bMC

the wewi cif tHv fKiMVf Lsefri. and concrH^icors

liacermf ter publteatten 15 noceptnd ofily on li^hu
Wt rq^-et thiL AlTrtxtrad ConiplLIU!|- U|^' laifeMf
atHw into corrospondenc^

The latest updates on the Acu Mega-
compos, along with all the gossip for the
New Year.

LETTERS io

Want to use your Arnold with a
Camcorder? Ziggy finds out how with a
little help from his friends.

10-UNERS 14

Demos, mini-game^s and lots more on
offer in this month’s round-up of readers'
progettes.

ADVENTURE l8

DM’s got a feast of new talent lined up for
you in his dungeon. Join him if you dare,

HAIRY HACKER 22

Pokes and cheats abound as Hairy kicks
off the New Year with a bang.

SUBSCRIPTI0NSZ7

Some excellent utilities get the Bob Adam’s
going over this month. Read on to discover
their value.

THE TECHIE BIT46

All the latest machine code madness, as
well as plenty of programming tips from
the Doc himself.

APPLICATIONS 52

Looking for a widget?
Doc Watson is
working on something
^special just for you.

LISTING

The General Election is looming. Why not
discover the outcome early with ACU's
mega board game?

COMMS

We alt like a bargain. Get one yourself with
the latest M ACU subs offers.

BOMpflUEY a

Education, music, strategy, shooting, you
won’t find any better* games selection
than right here in your fave mag.

Trouble shooting is the name of the game,
and Struan Bartlett certainly has some
answers for you.

BITS M

More ^ctacuiar Jodies to sell, swap and
hire. Take advantage now.

EASYDRAW 41 PIECES 65

Glynne Davies starts pulling everything Catch up on the latest superb ACU disc
into shape as the graphics series nears and tape offers here. You know Ft makes

completion. sense.

SUPREMACY 12 IMAGES 49

Get painting and win some superb Ubisoft G-Loc in conversion. Vic Barnes discovers
compilations to boot. the art of porting a coin-op over to the

Arnold.

MIBA-MIBA 24

Nick Hutton undresses the latest modem
from Miracom to give you easy dialling
access.

LIST-IT 58

A truly wonderful BASIC tutorial which
builds up into your very own database.

SWIFT

RELEASE

A brand new offering from the Mid¬
dlesex based Citizen outfit looks set to
secure success for 1992, as 24 pin sales
continue to expand.

The Swift 24e 24-pin dot matrix
printer is an enhanced version of the
highly popular Swift 24, and boasts a
host of improved features, including
increased speed up to 216 characters
per second (cps), a quiet mode, the
citizen Utility Disk, two additional fonts
and a free colour kit worth £38.

The beast is compatible with IBM,

Epson, NEC and Citizen emulations
and has paper handling facilities in¬
cluding push-pull tractor, automatic
paper loading, parking, short tear off,
bottom feed and multiple copies.

Working at an excellent 52 Db in
quiet mode, it certainly won’t disrupt
your concentration and, the good news
is, that it won't break the bank,
retailing at £369 +VAT.

Ideal for small businesses, schools
and home users, the Swift 24e is well
worth a look at, if you’re on the hunt for
a reliable, heavy duty workhorse.
Available from all the usual Citizen
outlets, you could try giving Citizen a
ring on 0895 272621 for more informa¬
tion, before taking it out for a test spin.

GET

CLUBBING

News has just arrived of the grand re¬
launch of the Mosses Computer Club
up in Buiy, Lancashire, a longstanding
affair which, due to lack of interest, has
been in danger of disappearing alto¬
gether of late.

As Keith Rothwell, a founder mem¬
ber of the club, states: “It is felt tliat the
collapse of this group would be a loss to
the Mosses Centre as a whole and,
therefore, every effort is being mad e to
support it and try to halt its decline."

Arrangements are in liand to re¬
launch the once-popular gathering
straight away, The Club meets at
Mosses Centre, Cecil Street, Bury,
Lancashire, on the second and fourth
mondaysofeach month, commencing
at 8pm, and the following program has
been arranged to start the ball rolling
again:

Pages

13th January 1992

An introduction to the IBM PC and its

OperatingSystem-Michael Bainbridge

27th Januaiy^ 1992

Aspects of computing today-Marianne

Dickinson

10th February 1992

Talking’ computer s-Keith Rothwell
10th March 1992
Annual General Meeting.

The Mosses Community Centre is lo¬
cated close to the Town Centre, not far
from exit 2 of the M66 Motorway, with
adjacent, large, free car parks and good
access and facilities for the physically
handicapped.

So,ifyou fancy getti ng involved, why
not take a trip down to Mosses, raise
the subject of computing in general,
and Arnolds in particular, and do your
bit for the environment by saving this
club from extinction. For more details,
try ringing the centre now on 061 761
2079.

FAMILY

MATTERS

Due to the increasing popularity of the
All Format Computer Fairs, an extra
member of the Riding family has been
taken on to lake care of advance ticket
and stand bookings.

John Riding, the former sole agent
for these affairs, has taken on his
daughter Christian, in a bid to cope
vdth the increased workload brought
about by the new multi-venue format of
the fair, and to guarantee the ongoing
success of the events.

At the last count, there were no less
than five fairs in J anuaiy alone so, if you
want to know the latest on venues and
dates, keep your eyes glued to these
pages, or try giving the Ridings a buzz
on 0225 868100 and tell them where
you read about them!

D&D TIME

You’ve played Hero Quest, now it's
time to get into the real thing - Dun¬
geons and Dragons. Due to the in¬
creasing popularity of this evergreen
adventure quest, Birmingham based
Centresoft has just set up a major dis¬
tribution deal which will see the game
on display in most major computer
shops around the country.

Set up as an ideal impulse purchase
for computer based players, the new,
easy to play starter pack will cost you a
mere £14,^ and comes complete with
everything you would expect to find in
a true D&D package.

Featuring a step by step folder sys¬
tem to help you through the early
stages, a set adventure for levels 1-5,
pop up characters and a full D&D
Cyclopedia, you'll find evet^hing you
need to get up and running in this
superb package,

Amstratf User March 1992

A LITTLE
LEARNING

Biiyinga CPC forefUicatioiial piiiposes
has always been an excellent idea and,
if yon got one this Christmas for just
that reason then you're in for a real
treat, courtesy of Kickitt Educational
Med ia.

Over the years, there has been a
vei itable host of software releases to
help ail ages, in all manner of subjects

and basically, if it has been released,
then you’ll lind it m the Rickitt ‘Educa¬
tional Suftware*A Parents’ Cmide' cata¬
logue.

As a mail oixlcr company, catering
for pre-school learners rigfit througli
t(j students studying for GCSE, The
extensive selection offered by Rickitt is
colourfully displayed in three Directo¬
ries each year*

lliis is where the good news comes
in km ACU readers. The guide, which
usually costs£1 from all leading newsa¬
gents, is now available absolutely free

to yourselves.

If you want to get hold of a copy of
this superb directory, simply contact
Rickitt at the address below, stating
that you saw the offer in ACU, and your
free copy should soon be winging its
way to you.

For everjihing you need to know
about educational software, contact
Rickitt Educational Media at llton,
Ilininster, Somerset. TA19 9HS. Alter¬
natively, irj' giving them a ring on 04fi0
you w'On’t be disappointed.

SCOOP!

If you are a regular customer of Lan¬
cashire based Intraset, then you will
already know of some of the excellent
discounts available from the extensive
software list* However, if you have never
taken advantage of the vast array of
Intraset tipster programs, then this is
the time to do so,following the set-upof
a brand new service to new and old
subscribers alike.

Mutli-Scoop, a superb Football Pools
Syndicate network, has been devised
to be both fun and profitable for its
members, whilst forming the backbone
of some handy home income to boot.

How does it work? Very simply in¬
deed. What you do is invest as little as
£1 per week, leaving Intraset to invest
50% of all subscriptions every week of
the year on football pools, and even
horse racing from time to time.

Every paid up member of the syndi¬
cate is guaranteed a share in every win
and, if you want to earn more money,

then get recruiting. As soon as you are
a fully fledged member of the syndi¬

cate, your personal identification card
and number will allow you to introduce
new members to the scheme, giving
you up to 20% commission on every
new member’s subscription,

IVork that out and you'll see that by
introducing just five new members,
you’ll have made your original invest¬
ment back, and it doesn't stop there.
Just keep recruiting and you’ll soon be
in the black, especially as you also get
a commission on every subscriber
taken on by your subscribers.

Got all that? If you have, then you
should by now be champing at the bit
to find out more info about Multi-Scoop.
’Without further ado, if you want to take
part in a guaranteed success story for
very little ouday, then gel in touch with
Ken Chadwick at Intraset Limited, 10
Woodside Avenue, C layton-Le-W ood s,
Chorley, Lancashire, PR6 7QF, or tel¬
ephone on 0257 276800,

It has to be wo rth investigating, don’t
you think? Good luck and trust the
experts to place your bets in your favour.

A^i OUP
AfkAb ^

With OATSr^oT AiHlps*

J up A6»Au4 ^

Amstrad User S/tarcb 1992

Page J

MJC

COMPUTER

SUPPLIES

S^ifJfyUi*rs i*J niseimnl Siifitvaire since 1984

HOW TO ORDER:

All prices includ'e VAT £ diMvery

Send che^iues or postal orders made payable to:

MJC SUPPLIES (ACU)

Unit 2, The Arches, Icknield Way,
Letch worth, Herts, SG6 lUJ

Or teleplione with Access or Visa debit
and credit cards on;

0462-481166

Qv9r$ea$ Custumer^: ^Qr quotation

EducfitionaK Bodies, Local Au^orTtioo, Govt.
Depanmentfi: setid written order
FAX US ON 0462 670301

AMSOFT CF 2
DISKS

Due to the probtens over
supply and prices - please
GALL tbr the latest

DESKTOP

PUBLISHING

9TDP PRESSSOfTWARE

A superb If^cut program
allowing t^t artd graf^l otobc
printed cm ttis sanae Contains a

nuwber oi t^tionts'll i^p srt create
leafUe. posters ^
_ QNLYM.95 _

STOP PRESS &AMXMOQ5i

As above bulls complete

with the AMX moipiKking the
profram a ^ quicker one
easier to US&

_ ES4.95 _

anffliu EXTRA!

Two disks <FN^a fonts and cip art
for use with Stop Press.

ONLY £14.95

*** SPECIAL OFFER ***

STOP PRESS SORWARE
PLUS

EXTRA! EXTRAI
ONLY 44.95

CPC AMX MICE &
INTERFACE

W mi ca a i mt

InterlftciB tac± Id
vm 81^ no f f a ble tp ^ffer t^iem io
work on the'CPC PLUS
cofrmufm;

CPC iflousE & iriirrifir

(plaasa exaeffy witich
mrK»amy

RIBBONS

QuMrittr.

IMIN 1 Z S

wFsoansoo .

fteWMicKXrafirtSi 3.95 ...iS.fiO

Clllieni®©--. . -^S

attw tC-1D M^nrm

smiC24-io .*^aao ...sQjXi

3.35 . _15:3a

_ H5™-11.0CI

f^LWQMona „.S.50., .15,CD
filarColoQT

I gxiLgfw Mcivi 4-.S5 . . .8^

~ HEAT TRAMSFEH RISBONS

]X 1 x2

emmi 12D-D.. . .6 95 ■ - ■ 13.M

Pafiastmic 1061/1185 Mom ... 15.00

Sisr LC-15 Black ........... .5.95 - ■ .IS.*)

StarLOIOC&ICmr.1^.96 ...23,00

COURIER DELIVERY

AvsfFabts on any order. Prices
etti at £3.00 - please ask ter
fidBisr details.

SERIOUS DISKS

EDUCATIONAL DISKS

for jnof 0 ir\tormtm on f/w
FdLrca(/&rifi/ proffj'ffms «lf for ths W^C
Etfuca-^j'ortiJ Sopp/lffme^t

K<yi io PleiK

Young oPiildron don't uncterstand
CAPITAL LETTEPS, as on ttie
keyboard. to Plss^ is a ^i £?f
laminated keytward slickers showing
lowor and UPPER CASE.

Keys to Pltftu £3.86 OR £2.96 IF
ORDERED WITH OTHER GOODS

.....1535

OsilTiSHiMa'sits^ 1^

tutor •tS.SS

]M(m Tutor fT2 ****...
Aimrtacic ^wlarOuif
'‘5WGonorat]^QOTMao(towl^ 14M
F^ftes An^w^tack

' Artmrn^ (6 to 11 yeara). JM

Spi^ng (6 tck4l .7.85^

Fun School 1 to pfogiams per disc

For 2 Io 5 yaars .. 6.K

For 510 7 years ..,, ^^ h . + ^ * .6.^

1 For a (o 12 ysars ,,,. + ^ h * ^ ^. ^6.^5
Fun School a & ptogram^ per disc

For2to6years..... ...6.95

For6to B years...6.96

For a Io 12 yeara ., ^ ^^, *. * +, .6.95
Fun School I 6 programs per disc

For 2(0 5 years.11.96

For 5 Io 7 years ..11.96 .-

ForT Io 12yiMrs ............ 11.95

NEW Fun SclKOl 4 S programs per disc
Fofunder6years .,,,,,,11.^

For S to 7 yeafs.11.95

For 7 to 11 years.. .11.96

ACCESSORIES

COMPILATIONS

Grandstand

..14.95

James Bond CoNeclion .. k ...

Manna Bartara GoUeclion r...

..10.95

Max pack.....

.. 17 ^5

Movie PremiHre Collection .,.,

..t4.95

Soccer Stare.....

. .13,95

Super Sega CQHaclipn ^ ^ ^ ^

..17.95

System 3 Pack...

. ,14.95

I Vifiual Worlds...

.,16.95

Ate Storm.

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Battle COmiTlEi

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M»tvrard

Amtrati User Mareti 1992

llEnEKI

THE RIGHT
CONNEC¬
TIONS

T am of that generation which is stoutly
resisting the pressures to give up the
collection of vinyl, and re-invest in
compact discs. 1 have, however, been
motivated over the years to move from
standard 8mtn cine to Super 8 and now
to video. Though I still have the ZX 81
I built from a kit (actually, through the
good offices of WH Smith, it was the
3rd kit before the low grade bits and
pieces could be persuaded to work
harmoniously as the good Sir Clive
intended), my pride and joy is now my
CPC464, upgunned to blliS with all the
trimmings. Imagine, therefore, my
concern at being advised to change to
an Ainiga -oreven a BBC, Spectrum or
Commodore 64! ’TVhy?”, you may ask.
Well, it is because all these have a video
connection enabling their graphics and
other output to be recorded onto video
tape. The Amstrad range has very ex¬
cellent qualities, but video compatibil¬
ity is not one of them.

I managed to fi nd a shop that still had
an MP2 modulator - you remember,
that now ancient piece of kit that turns
the CPC output into RF so tliat it can be
plugged into the back of the domestic
television set. Armed with this, I
thought the problem of turning my
graphics screens into video titles would
be solved. Not a bit of it; an attenuator
seemed to help a little, but the choice
was between a wintry snow scene or
the Moire patterns of particularly shot
silk. Some research among the experts
around the town suggested that a Gen
Lock program used with one of the
aforementioned computers was the
only way to solve the problem. I was
persuaded that this was an excellent
solution, which would also allow control
of VCRs to enable mixing and merged
titling. Marvellous. But expensive, no
use for the Amstrad, and far too tech¬
nical to persuade any canny wife of the
reality of the need!

However, it set me thinking, and I
was quite sure that there must be a way
of persuading Arnold to work his magic,
simply, cheaply and to an acceplable
quality standard - and so it transpires.
No-one interesting in makingtheir own
vid eo fil ms spends long before a second
VCR is bought at a boot sale “for ex¬
perimental purposes”. Connect the CPC
to the MP2 and plug the RF cable into
a VCR, but instead of putting the re¬
cording video cassette into this one,
connect the video output from this VCR

Page 10

to the input of the second and use this
to record.

The quality is quite dramatically
better. Not, perhaps, up to the standard
of a new Amiga, disk drive, graphics
and Gen Lock program package - but a
wholelotcheaper and quite acceplable.
No doubt there are a lot of sound
theories to explain why the system
should not work but, fortunately, it does
and the information may be just what
those with an Arnold, a camcorder and
a wife need to keep all three!

Thanks for your help in the past,
maybe this tip can help someone in the
future,

Colmd (Retired) aKSilvey CBE
BSc, Midlothiein. Scotland.

Zi^y: Well, first of all, thank you
for your missive Colonel. 1 think it
just goes to prove our argument
further that you don't need to up¬

MAIL

grade, when you can do just about
anything on an Arnold that you can
do on bigger and bulkier machines^
but for far less expense. This in¬
deed is another fine example and,
if anyone else has anything to add,
on this or any other point, to dem¬
onstrate the exceptional qualities
of the CPC, don't hesitate to write
and tell us.

BOX

WALLBUSTING

Please print this letter for the sake of
the sanity of all those readers who felt
that they wasted an awful lot of time
typing in the Wallbusler listing (Octo¬
ber 1991), only to find that it does not
work.

There needs to be a space between
the two sets of inverted commas in line

Arntrad User March 1332

330 (at least on my PLUS machine),
otherwise you get an error which does
not reveal itself on the screen, as the.
screen is turned off when it occurs and
the program dies.

Thanks for a great magazine, but
please publish more letters.

Stephen Jeavons, Camberley,
Surrey.

7Aggy: Correction accepted, apolo¬
gies offered. Here’s hoping that
this should sortoutafewproblems-
As to the letters, we shall do our
best to squeeze out more space for
your views and comments,

NOT SO
EASY

With reference to the article in the
December 1991 issue of Amstrad
Computer User, entitled Easydraw,
(page 58).

'Hiis listing is fairly long and acouple
of the listed lines are different from the
list, as published for the earlier part of
this program in the November issue.

The choice of print in the magazine
that lists the figure 1 and the letter 1
precisely the same, gives me very little
chance to type the list in correctly.

Perhaps you will be kind enough to
print the full listing of this program
again,preferably on single colour paper,
ie. not black and white curves, with the
L and 1 distinctly different and, finally,
with proof reader listings at the end of
each line.

Ian Dempster, Seliy Park, Birming¬
ham.

Ziggy: As the Easydraw program
pre^^sses, certain line numbers
are, indeed, altered, to make way
for the latest developments to the
program. Ibis may account for the
discrepancies between your list-
ings. As to the 1 and! problem, we
have had a fair few letters on the
subject and, to put all of your minds
at rest, we shall, when the series
finally comes to an end in the not
too distant future, be printing the
final, completed version, with proof
codes to boot.

We shall try and make the dif¬
ferences between letters and figures
as clear as possible while, for those
of you who don’t want to get sore
fingers can buy the whole program
already prepared on disc or tape,
from the Pieces section later on in
this issue. I hope that makes you
aU sleep a little easier.

Amstrad User March 1992

THE OLD
WOUND...

1 am writing in response to the letter
from a reader concerning cover tapes,
which you published recently. I find it
irritating when a reader writes, as he
does, seemingly keen to present only
half-truths and conveniently ignoring
other facts which might undermine his
arguments.

He states that “All readers should be
considered, not just 464 users. "This is
one of the things which I find annoying.
A cover cassette would be of benefit to
464, 664, 6128 and 464+ users; surely
they would represent a clear majority
of ACU's readership? And, in this case,
how could a cover cassette possibly be
catering Just for 464 owners?

My interest, too, goes further than
the FJRE button on a joystick, (in fact,
I dislike blast-’em-up games). 1 enjoy
programming, learning machine code
etc. A cover cassette need not be
crammed with games. 1 would prefer
utility programs.

Thereaderfurther stated that acover
cassette would be, to him, a useless
piece of junk. He implied that he was
only interested in ‘serious’ applications.

If this is the case, why is it that he has
missed WAVE’S rece nt advertisement?
For a fee of just £20, plus postage,
WAVE will modify a 6128+ machine so
that it can load cassette software from
an external cassette recorder with a
jack lead. (Obviously, the older 6128
has a remote socket for a cassette re¬
corder).

I know that the reverse of this argu¬
ment is that 464 owners should buy a
disc drive. Many have, others cannot
afford to. However, it seems to me that
it would be much cheaper for 6128+
owners to have their machines modi¬
fied, giving them immediate access to
the massive amount of cassette-based
software available (and not just the
budget section), than it would be for
464 owners to buy disc drives. I am a
464 owner and I have no plans to add a
disc drive to my machine-ever!

Since th e 6128+ can now be modified
to load cassette software, how would
the reader be subsidising 464 users? If
ACU want to feature a cover disc, and a
rise of price in the future. I will have no
hestitation in cancelling my subscrip¬
tion and transferring my readership to
AA.

So, come on, now that I’ve told you
how you can modify your machine to
enable you to enjoy the dubious delights
of the budget cassette selections, I’m
certain that the reader in question can

ini

find something else to whine and
whinge about.

F.L Ramsay, Blackley, Manchester.

...REOPENS

Having read December’s ACU, the
dissent between 464 and 6128 users is
understandable, but we can put this
right.

1 am sure that the majority of readers
would be prepared to pay a little extra
for the magazine, if you can satisfy both
parties. Well, you can, if you first of all
gree to a Cover Tape one month, and
then next month have a Cover Disc and
alternate each month.

ITiis would put one over on our rival
mags and so ACU would have a firstll
Comments please.

Ray Armitage, Shej^eld.

Zi^gy: As 1 though^ the old dis¬
sent seems to be as ripe as ever.
Obviously, we welcome your views
and ask you to air your grievances,
though obviously, we would prefer
letters not to be openly hostile to
other readers who have written in
with their comments. Mr Armitage
certainly seems to have come up
with 3 foir solution to the problem,
and a very unselfish one it is too.
We at ACU will certainly be looking
into this form of progress, so if
anybody else has something to
contribute to the debate, please let
us know, so that we can consider
your pros and cons.

ADVENTURE

TIME

My nine year old son has a CPC 6128
and, having become a little disillusioned
with zapping aliens, has turned his at¬
tention to adventure games and we
have been reading with interest your
articles in ACU,

You refer in the August edition to
Wow Software, run by Joan Pancott,
and I wondered if you could let me have
her address, so that I can write off for a
catalogue?

Annette Gallimore, Malvern Link,

Wares.

Certainly madam. Joan’s
address at Wow is: Wow Software,

78 Radipole Lane, Weymouth,
Dorset, 1^4 9RS. Wow’s stocklist
really is veiy extensive, so good
luck and welcome to the ever grow¬
ing band of adventurers.

Page 11

imiii

I £ you want to get your bands on some real treats, you’d better listen
up, otherwise you won't stand a chance of winning one of 10 superb
copies of the ^-Sea Supremacy compilation.

As you know, this is a true action/strategy blast, set above, on and
below the water, so pick up your paints or whatever and get set to draw.

What we want you to do, is design a supercharged, fiituristic Jet plane,
that is also capable of going underwater for attack. A sort of sub-aqua jet,
if you like. Just send us your best drawing and the ten best pictures, to be
judged by the ACU crew, will win themselves a copy of this fabulous
collection. Got that, then get painting now.

don’t forget to state which format you want the game on and send your
entries to:

ACU Supremacy,

Sunnyside Cottage, Carluddon, St Austell,
ComwalL PL26 STY.

The editor's decisiou is final.

Psae 12

Amstrait ttser March 1992

' E24.S9

SPECTR^^

AMSTBAD*

"Seynwur Is complelelv

brllltant. It's packed wittr gredt
graphtlcA, ^ a kicKlr'
9Qund IracHc and It's vary,, vary
playable." yOUR SINCLAm

'Graphics and pfeeentaUPn are
^Kce^lerit and all in adi SMghUy
Magic i£ abeoPutely
magic. "YOUR SINCLAIR

"A g|pNoM& bounce around
plotfdmi game packed wilb
colour and plAyetrility"
ZZAP

"A Crash Smash
Thke gam^lhai launched ydur
fasrouritB mega etar.

'‘Extremely accea&lbifi.
refreshingly crigifial In Ideas
end gmal staying pawar/
22AP

* Mote Am^tfed usere have Littte Piifl SUbslUuled l&r CJ'® Elephant Antics.

ATARI ST AND AMIGA

TREASURE aiANO CUZZV
LITTLE PUFF
ROCKSTAH

FANTASY WOBLP DiZZV
Bt.vMc5uR IN H3U.VWOOO
SPB^t INTR;yWS;V1-VAMIA

tJS9S 555 093
tffi9S555 095
0^9^ $5$ 0-50
0e9e£55 07&
0J99«55S 010
06&a SSS 105

CODEMASTERS

AMIGA screen shots shown.

GcKlamasters Sottwflre Gortipany Limited 1991 f*0 0o:< 6. LeartunQton Spd; England. CV33 QSH

HELP LIMES

NFW RELEASE INFO lINE 089B 555 iXW tTelte you Is being retsased the main^^

It yotj can't get any further <n erry ol lties*5 and wcMjIa bfe ue fo givehindt & lipa Qe^ iw*v tosolvo- all the pussiesjMst

phone the nuhftters betow Please dorvi phone ontess y&u a^e afly stuck and make gyre v^iu get permtseron from ths
person who pays the phone-bill lirSt! CaSS COSte 35p oer rninulfi clgnf*g trff peak time and ^8p per mifldte at aP Other limes.

(GREAT BRITAIN ONLYi

SPECTnUtt. AHSTRAD. C&4
□tZZY

iHaBroS'isn

^REAiAJRE IbLiWlrD-aS?!-

»^AWTAaY WORlQ CHZZY

t-rfLt FUPf

BOCkS^AB

masiclano

hiAGK:

.^VMOiJFi IN HOU VVAXKl

*5pKi; ihJ nWtSVLvANA

oaouEff Ids

iiiyesi

QUODITS

BY B. FRETWELL

The aliens have landed* This one is an
excellent blast em upagainstthe clock.
Simply pick up your joystick, choose
your difficulty level and do your worst
as the aliens appear on screen. Great
stuff]

10 RESTORE:MODE 0 ; PAPER 0:BORDER 0:INK 1.26:INK 3,6:INK 0,0;
CLS:PEN1:PRINT:PRINT” QUODITSPEN 3:PRINT:PRINT” USE A
JOYS ICK PR I NT: PR I NT” OR KEYS PRINT ; PRINT" IQllTP" : PRINT
" (AlDOWN"rPRINT" {ENTER}FIRE":PEN 1 : PRINT:PRINT" GOOD

LUCK SOLDIER"

20 SYMBOL AFTER 248:FOR 1=249 TO 254:READ A,B.C,D,E,F,G,H:SY
MBOL I,A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H:NEXT:INK 4,14:PEN 4;PRINT:PRINT " {S
PACE) TO START":x=19:y=l3;WHILE INKEY$<>” WEND:WINDOW #1,1
,5,1,1:WINDOW #2 , 15,20,2 , 2:WINDOW #3,1,4,25 , 25 : WINDOW #4,5,2

0,25 25

30 CLS:PRINT #4,CHR$1242);"ALIENS tBTF'91}";:PLOT 0.16:DRAWR
0,350,3:DaAWR 636,0:DRAWR 0,-350:DRAWR -636,0:sc=0;LOCATE 1
,1:INPUT”start leve1{1-5)";1e ; LOCATE 1,1:PRINT " ";CBR$

(242);"TIME/ SCORE" ; CHR$(243);;IF le<l OR 1

e>5 THEN 30

40 INK 2.2:INK 4,14:INK 5,18:1NK 6,15:INK 7 . 12:INK 8,3,6:bl=
10+(le*3):ti = 250+(10#le):FOR i=l TO bl : c=INTI END*4)+251:a = IN
T(RND*15)+2:b=INT(RND*15)+5:IF TEST(a*32-16,4O0-b»16+6)<>0 T
HEN i=i-l;GOTO 50 ELSE LOCATE a,b:PEN RND*5+3:PRINT CHR$(c):
50 NEXT:DATA 18,31,63,245,63,18,31,15,15,25,49,99,198,254,66
,63,129,189,255,90,126,66,126,60,68,130,92,42,62,73,156.66,3
2,74,37.88.26,164,82,4,60,126,90,231,219,60,219,195
60 IF J0Y(0)=16 OR INKEY(18)=0 THEN GOSUB 80 ELSE IF JOYfO)=
1 AND y>4 OR INKEY(67)=0 AND y>4 THEN y=y-l:LOCATE x.z:PRiNT
" ";:LOCATE x, 2 + 1: PRINT” "-ELSE IF JOY(0)=2 AND y<22 OR INK
EY{69)=0 AND y<22 THEN y=y+l:LOCATE x.z:PRINT" LOCATE x,z
+i:PRINT" ":

70 PEN 4:LOCATE x,y:PRINT CHR$(250); ; PEN 5:LOCATE x,y+l;PRIN
T CHR$(249) : :ti=ti-l;2=y ; IF INT(ti/10)=ti/10 THEN PRINT #l,t
i/10:GOTO 60 ELSE IF ti<l THEN 100 ELSE GOTO 60
80 FOR i=576 TO 64 STEP -32:PLOT i , 400-y*16-8:FOR k=lO TO 2
STEP -2:DRAWR -k , 0,1:NEXT:DRAWR 32,0,0;IF TEST(1-16.400-y*16
-10)00 THEN SOUND 1 , 200,10 , 7 ; bl =bl-1 : sc = sc +1 e ; CLS # 2 : PRINT
#2,sc : :PRINT#3 ,bl-PAPER 0 : LOCATE i/32 . y+1 ; PRINT" ’■::i=0:a=r
NT(ti/10)

90 IF bl=0 THEN FOR i=l TO a;PRINT#2.5C+i::PRINT#1,a-i;SOUND
1,i*10,0.5,5:NEXT:sc=sc+INT(ti/10) : le=le+l-GOTO 40 ELSE NEX
T:ti=:ti-5 :PRINT#1 , I NT {ti/10 ) : RETURN

95 'IF bl=0 THEN FOR i=l TO a : PRINT#2 , sc+i; : PRINTfl , a-i:SOUN
D 1 ,i*X0,0.5,5 :NEXT:sc=:sc + lNT( ti/10) : le = le+l :PEN 7 : LOCATE 5.
10 :PRINT"PRE3S SPACE": WHILE INKEYSO" ": WEND : LOCATE 5,10: PR
INT SPACES (12) -GOTO 40 ELSE NEXT : t i = t i-5 : PRINT#1 , INT { t i/10)

; RETURN

100 SOUND 1,1000,30.7:PEN 8:LOCATE 7,8:PRINT "TIME OUT":FOR
K=1 TO lOOO:NEXT:PEN 4 : LOCATE 3,10:PRINT"FINAL SCORE-sc;:P
EN 6:LOCATE 5,12:PRINT"ON LEVEL-lePEN 7:LOCATE 5,14:PRIN
T"PRESS SPACE";WHILE INKEYS<>" "iWEND : LOCATE 5,10:PRINT SPA
CE$l12) ; :RUN

Faffe 14

Amstrsui itsar M^ch 13^

RESET

BY RUSSELL WHITWELL

Want to play a joke on a friend? Try this
one for size and simply alter the words
in line 70 to suit the occasion* As it says,
it is harmless, and quite a laugh as well

10 POKE S,BDEE , ft.C9 : CALL ABCO 2 ; PEN 1: PAPER 0 ! BORDER 1 ; MODE 1: P
RINT CHBSUCI.I '’ Anst rad 129K ^fic^Ol;cswplitfell' (v3PRINT; PRINT
’■ "CHRii (1 64 ) " 1 9S5 Aiostrad Consumer Electronics plc‘''SPC(. 12 ) "a
nd Locomotive Software LtdPRINT:PRINT" BASIC L.I";PRINT

20 mk=0:PHINT”Ready";EVERY 1,1 GOSUB lOO
30 INPUT"" ,aS: TF q$ = '”' THEN 30

40 IF UPPER$(e$f="RUN"+CHR${ 34 I OR UPPFFt$ taS) =-LOAD"tCHRS (34

^ THEN mk=l;GOTO 100

50 eS=a$ + " ’ " i aSj:LEFT$ ta$ , 4 )

60 IF UPPERS!a$)<>"CAT " AND UPPERStaSK>"LOAD" AND UPPERS 1 a
J) <>"SAVE" AND UPPERS (a$1<>" RUN " AND UPPERS t aS )<>"" AND UPP
ERSUS 3 <>”RUN" + CiiR$i341 AND UPPERS t aS ) <> "LOAD"+CHBS ( 34 } AND
UPPERS(as)<>'■ 1 DIR" THEN 90 ELSE 70

70 MODE 2;LOCATE 1,13:PRlNf’GotchatYou have been tricked by
Russell ll/hitwell's RESET program ! Heal ly , i t pretends it is a
naff prograra that just resets.BUT A good trick to play on
your friends,It has us fooled todtAnd it's harmless!1"rEND
eo FOR Cs=l TO LENtAil:!^ ASC(LEFTS [ AS ,C)) <32 THEN NEXT;GOTO
20 ELSE C^l:GOTO 90
90 PRlNT"SyntsK error":GOTO 20

100 IF mk=l THEN PRINT CHRSdOT'Ead command" : GOTO 20 EL.SE IF
INKEYi661=160 THEN RUN 10 ELSE RETURN

CHARACTERS

BY ROBIN GILBERT Fancycreatingyourowncharact^rset?

1 ' Character Set Designer by Robin Gilbert,

3 '

10 MODE 1;INK 0,0;BORDER 0:TNK 1,17:INK 2,14;INK 3*26:C=33;S
YMBOL AFTER 32;SYMBOL 144,129,I 29,129,12&,126,128,128,255;qS
(13="Save" LqSl2t="Load'' :base = 40956

20 CLSiPEN 2;FOR f=32 TO 256:PRINT CHRS^f3;;NEXT;PRINT;PEN I
:PRINT STRINGS I 40,154):FOR g=4B TO 496 STEP 208:FOR f=0 TO B
sMOVE e+f*16,144;DRAWR 0,128:HOVE g,l44+f•16;DRAWR ]23,0;NEX
T f,g;LOCATE 1,20:PRINT STRINGS(40,iS4};GOSUB 100
.30 kr=0;IF INKEYt9)<>-l AND c>32 THEN ky=5;c-c-l ELSE JF INK
EY(1»<>-1 AMD c<255 THEN k.y=S:c = c+l ELSE IF INKEYISOJO-I TH
EN ky=l ELSE IF INKEY (. 36} 0-1 THEM ky=2 ELSE IF INKEV( 62 3 <>-
1 THEN ky=3 ELSE IF INKEY(e3)<>-l THEN hy=4

40 IF ky-0 THEN 30 ELSE IF ky=5 THEN GOSUB 100:GOTO 30 ELSE
IF ky<3 THEN PEN 2;CLS;CAT;PRINT:CLEAR INPUT;PRINT"Enter ";q
iiky);" filename 18); ";;INPUT "".fS:fS=MJDS(fS.1,&3+".set"i
PEN 3;PRINT;PRINT qS(ky):"ing ";f5

50 st=l:x=0:y=0;IF ky=l THEN SAVE fS,b,base,1764;GOTO 20 ELS
E IF ky=2 THEN LOAD f$;OOTO 20 ELSE IF ky=3 THEN FOR f=0 TO
7; POKE (base+f+( (c‘ 32 3 ten ,0 iNEXTiGOSUB 90

60 ky=0;LOCATE 17+x.9+y;PRINT CHRSU43+St};IF INKEYt9)<>-l A
ND jc)0 THEN x = !i-l;kyil ELSE IF INKEY{U<>-1 AND 3i<7 THEN x = x
+ l;ky=2 ELSE IF INKEYtOlO-l AND y>0 THEN y=y-l;ky=;3 ELSE IF
lNKEy(2)<>-l AND y<7 THEN y=y+l:ky=4 ELSE IF INKEY(47)<>-1
THEN ky=e

70 z=TrME; WHILE TIHE <7 + 20 ; WEND: IF lNKEV(5eK> T THEN ky=5 EL
SE IF ky=0 THEN LOCATE 1 7+jt, 9+y ; PRINT CHH$ ( 233 1; CHR$ 1 8 ) | MIDS
USU) ,y+K U ; :G0T0 60 ELSE IF ky=6 AND st = 0 THEN st = l ELSE
IF ky-6 AND st=l THEN at=0 ELSE IF ky=S THEN 20
80 H1D$(r$(y),,1)=CMfiS(143+st);IF ky<>5 THEN 60,ELSE FOR
f-0 TO 7:t=0;m=!iFOH g=0 TO 7:t = t+m*[144-ASC(MIDS(r$(f } ,g+l ,

1 ) ) I ;ra=iii*2 :NEXT:POKE basG+f+U c-32 } *6 ) , t ; NEXT f:GOTO 20

90 PEN 1:F0R f=0 TO 7;aS=BTNS!PEEKtbasstfttd*8)).8);rS(f)=""

;FOE e=l TO 8;r*(f)=r$(f)+CHH«( 1 44-(VAL(M1D4(aS,g.I))));NEXT

:LOCATE p-3,9-tf ;PRINT HEX$ ( PEEK< baee+f+d*8 K ^ LOCATE p.R + f;

PRINT r$(f):NEXT;LOCATE pt2,18:PRINT d+32!RETURN

100 LOCATE 1,25 ;PHINT"Okay , " ;STRING$U6,32) ;d=c-3] : p=30:GOSU

0 90:d=c-33;p=4:GOSUB 90rd=c-32:p=l7:G0SUB 90;PEN 3;LOCATE 1

, 22; PRINT" [Slave" , " LLload" , " [-Cllear" , "[Ajlter".. "Chooee

using cursur. SPACEsInk On/Off";RETURN

Well boot up this little gem and get
designing. Featuring save, load, alter
and dear grid, you can now modify
characters 32-255 at a flick. Pressing ‘e’
can get you out of a fix in this excellent
little proggie.

Amtnu/ User MarcA fUS2

/^e tS

WATERWAY

BY B. FRETWELL

Here’s an excellent graphics demo for
you to incorporate into your own
proggies. Watch as the picturesque
scenery appears and then see the
watersports in action on the river. Nice
work.

5 ' waterway by B.FRETWELL '91

10 MODE 1 ; TNK 1.9;INK 2.11rINK 3,0:INK 0,14:PAPER 0:CLS:DEG:
FOR 1=:£00 TO 400 STEP 2; PLOT 0 , i . 2; DRAW $40 , i , 2 ; NEXT; FOR i-0
TO 10; PLOT 220.225+i , 3 : DRAW 420,235-1 . 3 ; PLOT 220,1 7 G-'i , 2 ; M
AW 420,166+i,2:NEXT:F0H i=0 TO $ STEP 2;PLOT 250+i,230,3:DRA
W 290+1.250.3

20 DRAW 290+1.200.3:PLOT 390-i,230,3:DRAW 350-i,250,3:DRAW 3
50-1,200,3;PLOT 290+i.2S0,3:DRAW 350-i,230,3:PLOT 350-1,250.
3:DRAW 290+i,230,3;PLOT 250+i,170.2;DRAW 290+i,150,2;DRAW 29
0+i,190,2:PLOT 390-i,170,2:DRAW 350-i,150,2;DRAW 350-1,198.2
30 PLOT 290+i.ISO;DRAW 350-i,170;PLOT 350-i,150;DRAW 290+1,1
70;NEXT;FOR 1=0 TO 640 STEP 2:PLOT i.OiDRAWR 0.10+IRND*4f-2,
3;DRAWS RND*4,RND*4,1;NEXT:FOR 1=0 TO 320 STEP 2rPLOT i*2,15
0+ <COSU»2 + 40) *50) , 3 ;DRAW 1*2,198,2 ;PLOT i*2 + 2,150+ICOSI i*2 +
40 ) *50),3

40 DRAW i*2+2,198,3:PL0T 1,250-<COSU+40)*50t.t;DRAW 1,200.1
rPLOT $40*1,250-lCOSU+40)*l50 + r ) ) ;DRAW $40-1.200:NEXT; SVMBO
L AFTER 193;SYMBOL 200,0,3,0,7,3,2,3.3:SYMBOL 201.12G.192.12
8.240.224,224.232.232;SYMBOL 202.255,127.63,63,31,31.15.7
50 SYMBOL 203,254,254,254.254.252.252.252.248;SYMBOL 206,63,
0,1,35,83,1,0,7;SYMB0L 207.255,192,£48,246,255,254,133,254 ; I
NK 0,14:FOH i=840 TO .120 STEP -£:PLOT -2 ,. 2 ; TAG ; MOVE i+3£,
66:PRINT C}IR$(200 ) :CHR* ( 2011 ; :MOVE 1,50;PRINT CHR$ ( 202) ;CHR$
U43)j

60 PRINT CHR$(143);CHR$(143);CHR$1203);;PLOT -2,-2.3;MOVE 64
0-i,36:PRINT CHR$12061;CHRS(2071;:MOVE $40-i.9$:DBAWR 30.0,0
:NEXT;FOR 1 = 96 TO 66 STEP -nPLOT 2, 2,3;CALL &BD19;M0VE 32
0,1: PRINT CHRS(206) :CHfl$(2071 : ;CALL &BD19;MOVE 320,1 ;DP.AWR 3
0,0,0:NEXT

70 FOB 1=1 TO 1000:NEXT;FOR i=6fl TO 96:PLOT -2,-2,3:CALL tBD
1&:H0VE 320.i:PRINT CHR$I 206| ;CHR5(207 ); -CALL ABDlSiMOVE 320
,i:DRAWR 30,0.0;MOVE 320.1 -16;DRAWR 30.0,0:NEXT:FOR 1=320 TO
720 STEP 2:PLOT -2,-2,3;MOVE i,96
80 PRINT CHRS{206);CHfl$l207 ); ;MOVE i,9e;DRAWR 30,0,0:PLOT -2
,-2,2 [MOVE 640-i,6e:PRINT " CHRS i. 200 > UOl ); i MOVE 640

-i,SO;PRINT CURS(202):CMaS(143);CHRS(143)iCHR*(143):CHfiS(203
);[NEXT:l=60:k=-0.5

90 SYMBOL 204,0.48,43.60.32.16,126[SYMBOL 205,0.24,12.126,12
6,124,60;FOR 1=0 TO 670 STEP 2:PLOT 0,0,3:1 = 1 -k:MOVE i,70:PR
INT CHR$(205);[MOVE j,62:DRAW 1-16.1+14:MOVE i-26,1+20;PRINT
CHR$(204);:M0VE 1,62;DRAW 1- I 6,1+H,0;IF INT(i/SO)=i/SO THE
N k = -K

100 NEXT:TAGOFF:PAPER 0;PEN 3;LOCATE 15,22rPR INT"PRESS SPAC
E"; WHILE IKKEYSO” ": WEND : LOCATE 15,22 : PRINT’' " ; G

OTO 50

METROPOLIS

Just a quickie h'om Mr Hall this month,
though it's not a bad effort at all. Run it
and sit back as the 3D skyline appears
before your eyes.

BY DAVID HALL

1 ■ METROPOLIS a. lO-LINER b.F David Hall
. 2 ' . , assisted by WENDY "I want all the money if this eats

printed 1" HOLLOWAY
3

10 BORDER 0:rKK 0,0:INK 1.14;INK 2.2; INK 3.23-PAPER 0 ; MODE 1
:CLS

20 PEN 2: LOCATE 2.2 [PRINT "riEtRoPoLiS" : LOCATE 30.24: PR I NT "3
-D MaP"

30 FOR i = l TO 0 : #1=340-1*20 ; FOR U2S0+i*20 TO 100+i*20 STEP -
20 [MOVE l,m;ra = [ii-20

40 IF RND*10>7 THEN a=l:c=2 ELSE a={ RND*7 > +2 : c=3
SO GOSUB 60:NEXT 1,1 [WHILE rNKEYS="" : WEND:RUN
60 FOR z=0 TO a; FOR u=20 TO 2 STEP -2;h = 2;IF ii=20 AND c=3 TH
EN h=3 ELSE IF u<>20 AND c=3 THEN h=l

70 DRAWR u.ii.hiDRAWR ij,-u:DRAWR -y,-u:DRAWR -u,u; MOVER 2,0;N
EXT[MOVER -20.-2-FOR j=l TO 2;DRAWR £0 , -20 ,1 :DRAWR 20,20,3;M
OVER -40.-2[NEXT

00 IF z>l THEN DRAWR 0, 6 : MOVER 0,8 ELSE MOVER 0.14
90 NEXT[RETURN

Paw ts

Amstrad User March

/^TT-iTi / L,''NTi DOT MATRIX
1 iZjJliN I & NOTEBOOK

ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA

FBSi OELIVERY

Di^ ■ An/Hhtrfi n !hf UK maliyand

FREE SJARTEH KIT

£2931 ■ 'im MivUufin p-Ttar Imm Siiu

2 YEAR mARRAKTY

liFSM OiSar J (rchidna ]h6

praiier Hilh Mr>' Mier. (mar irffm Sitei.

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IlDill

THE DUNGEON
MASTER

DM gets a little

sentimental before

recovering his poise

for the gritty stuff.

I hope that by the time you are
reading this, our good friend Joan
Pancott will have returned home
and be feeling well and hearty but, as I
write this, she is in hospital and rather
poorly. So gel well soon Joan and we all
hope that you will shortly be running
your famous helpline and guiding all us

Page 18

lost adventurers once again. WoW
Software is in the capable but extremely
busy hands of J nan’s hu sband Maurice,
so please tiy to be a little patient if any
longer delays than usual occur with
your orders.

REVIEWS

Axeo/Kolthy T^rry Horsfield. Disc £8,
Available by mail order from FSF
Adventures, 4U Harvey Gardens,
Charlton, Ixindon SE7 BAJ,

Your name is Alaric BlackmoonI
Don’t blame me, blame Lany^Horsfield,
as that is who he has decided you will
be during the playing of his latest four-
part epic. This game first came out on
the Spectrum last year but now'Amstrad
owners can join in the fun and learn
why Mr Horsfield has earned himself a
reputation as an author of some repute,
including an award from Adventure

Probe for this game as 'Best 8 bit Text
Adventure of 1991/

Axe of Kolt has been written using
the PAW utility to great effect. After
reading the loading screens, which tell
you a lot of useful information about
how to interact with the game, you are
plunged into the adventure only being
told that you are a penniless wanderer
who was once a fabled swordsman, but
who has now fallen on hEird times. You
arrive at a town called Hengemire..,
ITiat’s all you’re told and the rest is up
to you to find out.

Axe of Kolt is big. Four full parts
wh ich load independently - the smallest
of winch is still 50K long, so un-
expanded 464s will be unable to play
this game I believe. A whole mass of
puxKles, traps and downright
deviousness awaits you but the story¬
line is strong enough to make you want
to keep coming back for more. There is
also a fair amount of humour to keep
you amused as well, I do not mean that
this is a comedy ■ far from it - but there
is some gentle leg-pulling from the
author, when you either do something
wrong or examine certain items of
scenery that are not essential to the
plot.

Til ere is a very detailed scoring
system which awards 5 points for every
correct action taken. When 1 tell you
that a perfect final score would be 1500
points, you can see that you’ve got a lot
to do before you’ll be able to complete
this game. How this guy invents and
writes such large games is beyond me
but I’m mighty glad that he does.

Do I have any quibbles? Well yes,
just one. I like to take my time when
playing an adventure and fully study
the text, think long and hard about my
next input and 1 expect the advcmture
to just sit there and wait for me. In other
words, I bate ‘interactive’ situations
where if you do not type something in,
the game ‘makes* a move and
completely destroys what you were
planning to do. This crops up at the
beginning of part four and personally 1
was a bit annoyed with it. I know that
PAW supports RamSavebut I still would
have been happier for *Axe’ not to have
used this time<iut gimmick.

As that was my only complaint i can
easily forgive the author this one
blemish on an otherwise very fine
adventure. This game is hereby
awarded the Dungeon Master’s Seal of
approval.

Another adventure that I’ve been
enjoying recently is TheAngelicus Saga,
a two-part text and graphic adventure
by Margaret and Mike Crewdson.
Available from WoW Software, 78
Kadipole Lane, Weymouth, Dorset DT4

Amstrad User March 193S

9RS. £3 Tape & £5 Disc. Written using
GAC, text-only freaks will be pleased to
hear that the graphics can be turned
off. In contrast to ‘Axe’ above, you get a
bit more background information
before you start this adventure.
Angelicas, a prosperous Planet, has
been invaded by space Pirates.
Although the Pirates have been
defeated in battle, they managed to
steal and hide a valuable scroll. This
scroll is the lifeline of Angelicas - it
contains all the history and information
which makes Angelicas so prosperou s.
The council cannot function properly
without it (Theycannot collect the Pol)
Tax?)

In this adventure you play the part of
Gamaluchad, (I take back everything I
said about Alaric Blackmoon above!) a
member of the Angelicas army. In the
first part your quest is to find the scroll
which, rumour has it, is still somewhere
on Angelicus, In the second part, your
mission is to find the Pirates on Scully,
the Planet where their Captain has his
headquarters (and PD library?) and
bring them back to justice.

'‘I'here is a lotof searchingto do inthe
first part and do remember to explore
everywhere. Part two requires rather
more brain than finger exercise before
you are allowed to claim victory.
However, in the best traditions of a
continuing saga, you do not capture
the Pirate Captain and this leads us
nicely onto the follow-up adventure -
The Angelicus Answer- which has just
been released. Stay tuned to this station
for the next thrilling instalment.

HINTS & TIPS

Dave Harvard (and his wife) are the
people to thank for this month’s lips on
yet another of their favourite Infocom
games.

HOLLYWOOD HI JINX

1. To Enter House: At South Junction,
turn Buck west, turn Buck east, turn
Buck north. (Refer to rear of photo of
Uncle Buddy, note directions given in
rhyme.)

2. The Maze: it IS mappable, without
any objects taken to drop (the standard
procedure). Use ordinary squared
paper - the school maths book type, not
graph paper. Each square will be 10',
mark directions with small arrows, draw
in hedges along lines as necessary.
Note that the centre is not marked, but
is one of few dead ends. This is the
method my wife and I used when we
couldn't get into the house. (We were
hoping to find the key in the centre.) To
make life inherently easier however,,
get the yellowed paperfromthe mailbox
and the thin paper from the dining

Amstrad Usbt March 19S2

I hope thatFve
covered your
particular
problem in
the above
selection
but if not,
you should
know by
now what
you need
to do. Just write in and tell me the title
of the game and where you arc stuck.
ITien as if by magic, the answer vrill
appear in these pages.

‘4

wrswM

Dave Harv'ard
Mrs Harvartl

room, and Put Thin Paper Onto
Yellowed Paper. This gives you an
effective map. The entrance is on the
southerly edge near the centre.

3. The Closet: The closet is in fact a
lift. By pulling various pegs the closet
can be raised or lowered to different
floors. In this way you can get upstairs
for the first time and ‘set’ the stairs for
future use. You will eventually get a
peg for the left-hand slot.

4. Order: There is no set order for
finding the ten ‘treasures’, but I would
advise opening the safe In the house
before attempting the safe in a sheltered
position. Excuse my waxing lyrical, but
this combination is the safest as you

may see.

5, General Notes: This is Infocom at
their logical best. Some of the problems
are difficult at first but when you realise
the solution, you can see that if you
were ‘there’, you would do exactly what
is required. Just because you have
found the ten treasures, don’t th ink it is
all over. This has to be an even better
‘End Game’ than Level Nine's version
of Colossal Caves.

6, Humour: It abounds everywhere.
Apart from reading various historical
accounts of your past, there is also the
madcap jaunt around downtown Tokyo,
guiding a mutant ‘rat’. For me though,
the best humour was found by running
the film treasure through the projector.

7, The BIG Tip: Make absolutely
sure that when you enter the maze you
have the means to get the treasure
from the centre. It does take a long
time to reach the centre, (and to get out
again), and it's enough to put you off
the whole thing when you have to do it
ail over again!

LTanks Dave (and Mrs Dave). Well,

MY LAMP WONT WORK
DEPARTMENT

A cry of HELP ME! has reached us
from Northern Ireland, Nicholas
Campbell from Killlnchy is having
trouble with Necrts Dome. He asks.
‘1). How on earth do you disable the
Mandroids? 2). Every time I type in -
W’ear 'fhermo Plas Suit - the computer
answers - How? I’ve tried every verb I
can think of when I’m in the room. Can
somebody out there help me? 3). How
do you deactivate the re-energiser pods?
You can’t pick them up and take them
to Chamber 9 of the reception level’ So
if anybody has played and completed
Necris Dome and knows these answers,
then please write to me and I’ll try and
put Nicholas out of his misery. Aren’t
adventures fun?

Until nextmonth, happy adventuring.

Please send all correspondence,
[lints and tips, complaints, money, etc
to: The Dungeon Master, C/o Amstrad
Computer User, Sunny side Cottage,
Carluddon, St Austell, Cornwall PL2fi
SriY.

Page 19

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Amstrad User March 1B^

Amstrad Usw March 1992

imiin

COMPLETE

CONTROL

More power to your cheating elbow with this
month*$ superb cheat finder routine.

W ow! Have we got some
goodies for you this month!
Sit back, read on and then
dash off to your Arnold and punch in
some of these goodies!

First up this month, I received a
particulatly sweet missive from a Mr
Stephen Matthews recently, which was
jam-packed with all sorts of goodies, not
the least of which was a pretty smart list
of multiface pokes for those with the
relevant hardware. Without further
ado, let’s get started.

Phew, stick that little lot up your
keyboard and watch it smoke! Moving
along, Stephen has also sent in a couple
of handy keypress pokes for your

Page 22

perusal. Anybody into wheelies and
handlebar spins should typeTAEHC
into the name table at the start of BMX
Freestyle.

Those of you who prefer the four
wheeled outings, should enjoy pressing
COhriROL to mo ve on to the n ext track
in Turbo Kart Racer, and absolutely
relish redefining the keys as CHEAT
and pressing SPACE on Continental
Circus. Do it right and the screen
border should change colour. Now start
the game and pressing C will give you

as many credits as you like.

Finally, we move on to Mr Matthews’
masterpiece, which just happens to be
an excellent little routine called Cheat

GAME

ADDRESS

POKE

EFFECT

Green Beret

&2507

Infinite lives (tape)

KungFu Master

&6A25

255 lives (tape)

Cybernoid

&0227

255 lives (tape)

Gryzor

&10DD

Never die (tape)

Turbo Outrun

&15ED

Infinite credits (tape)

Space Harrier 2

&1003

100 lives (tape)

Marauder

&030E

254 lives (tape)

&0309

254 Smart bombs (tape)

Dizzy

&751C

Never die (tape)

Super Trux

&mi

No clock (tape)

41 it

&9961

41 a

Twin Turbo V8

&81BB

No Comers (tape)

Wonderboy

&616D

Infinite lives ftape)

Manic Miner

&6E5C

Infinite lives (tape)

Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins

&5096

Press ESC to move level

Commando

&14C0

M. lives and grenades

Indianajones CIC>D)

&9916

Infinite lives (tape)

Herbert’s Dummy Run

&0204

Infinite lives (tape)

Target Renegade

&04CE

Infinite lives (tape)

&lPiA

a ii 1

&0F3E

Infinite time (tape)

Miami Cobra GT

&C7C8

Infinite time (tape)

Project Future

&9564

255 lives (tape)

&9B9D

it 41

Spitfire

&1B2A

Infinite lives (tape)

Shinobi

&15B7

100 lives (tape)

&14a7

Infinite magic (tape)

Ironman

&8913

Infinite credits if you lose
a race

Finder. Why? Because that is exactly
what it does.

Take a look over this excellent
program and type it in exactly as it is.
Run it and the first thing you should do
is load a binary file (a game file, not
multiface, unless it has been de¬
compressed) .Then, just select either 1.
to search for 3D ,32.Select 2. to search
for 35 (DEC HL), or select 3. to search
for D6,01,

The program will also search for
CALL &BB1E, which should pick up
any possible keypress cheats, so you
can't say that it doesn’t cover virtually
every aspect.

Well, what with the proggie and all, I
don’t think we have too much space left
this month, although we could just
squeeze in a couple of handy hints for
the ground level of Castle Master, for
those that don't know them already.

For example, that old horse in the
stable is not a real one, so climb inside
and enjoy the ride. If you don’t kill off
the spirit in the hospital, how can you
expect to get well?

To go up in the world, you must first
kill off the spirit in the Entrance lobby
and take a look at what it was guarding.
Always look behind paintings for clues
and examine the well and flagpole
careiully.

That Smithy's lunch looks
appetising. Try it, you might like it!
AJso, a ‘grate’ place to hide should be
found in the Great Hall, after you have
destroyed the spirit

Finally, if you haven't even worked
out how to get into the castle yet, what
have you been doing? Try the clue
hanging outside the wizard’s hut to find
the answer, but don’t forget to
hunt around inside the
hut for further
goodies.

Have a
lock at
this
small

Dpoft.

[

map for a layout, if you don’t know it
already and, above all, have fun on the
hunti

Ok, that’s about it for this month, so
give all of these goodies a whirl and let
me know how you got on.

Now then, about this
time of year, 1 like to
start thinking about
where I am going to
go on my hols, so this
lime, Tni going to let
you guess where I’m
going. Just follow the
cryptic clues over the
next few months and,
the first one who
writes In to the
address on page
12 with the
correct answer,
will win a bag

of very hairy goodies. Read on for due
number one:

Sounds like President Bush would be
right at home here!

Got that? Right, get your
thinking hats on and let me know what
you think. Until next time, happy
hacking.

10 ‘ CHERT FINDER VEH1, .2

20 ‘ BY STEPHEN MATTHEWS

30 ‘ (C) 19^1 MEGH BYTE SOFTWARE

40 * ThiO PrograER Bas Be*n Dona tad Ta THE PUBLIC

50 ’ But It Must'nt Be Ct 1 Ang«d In ANY WAYl M

60 *

70 mode: 2: locate 33p I;PRIHT‘'Maraory Frse :" INt S "K" a FOR j-L TO lOOOitTEX

TiON BREAK GOSUB 240ERROR GOTO 290

$0 MODE 2:rMK 0,0: EHK 1, 26 1 BORDER OtFEW 1 1 PRINT'This Program Saarqki^e Meiiw>rY For
PoBsibla SaJM ChMta. <Si3D.&33.&E>6.^01,&35>. Firs
t You Kaad To Load ft BINARY Fiie, Tnon Typ« HUNLOCATE 21.4;PHINT^'This Program
Waa Written By - STEPHEK MATTKEHS'^

9Q PHTHT-PRIHT‘'T!nia Prograri] Search's Mftttjory From Your STftRTT Location To The END
Location Reporting Any Cheats Found Oin Th« Wa/n

432 or &06,^01 or 435, or Possible KEYPRESSCHEAig, You May Mike The Cheat PagftS
Yets, 0000 LUCKi" lSOBUB SlOtGOSOS 300

100 MODE 2 1 LOCATE 32,1; PRINT" Bflarch for Cheats LOCATE 31p2iFHINT STRlPfO* (1&, 200
):LOCATE 35,4tPRlNt'“Bearch. For ^; LOCATE 36,6sPErNT"

1. 43D,432"tLOCATE ^6.BrPftIKT'-'2. 435 QT DEC LOCATE 36,10:FH1HT'"3. 406,401"

:LOCATE 34,12tPRllfT''Plta3a Select:'^

LJO h$-IMKEY$

120 TF THEH S-61 eB-50i g$-'' 43D,432 '^OOTQ 160

130 IF THEN 435“iOOTO 160

L40 IF b|-"3" THEN ?-2141b-1 fg$-'^ &D6,60L ‘^!OOTO- 160
150 SOBUfi aiOiGGTO 110

160 PEIMT^IIIPUT" START Addr^e? 4";as:PRINT eINPUT'* END Addras* 4".:eft:MODE 2^PRINT
'■'Searching FOR: ’"gS

170 LOCATE 1,22: PRINT”gTAHT address ^"HEXKasJ" or '"es'' DECIMAL'* sLOCATE 1,23: PR
IHT" E^^D address -4'mxf(ee >" or '^ee" DECIHAL" s

IBO FOR TO eft STEP 1: LOCATE 26,1 : PRINT'‘Searching Sl'^HEIC^ {a J '* (NEX>"

190 IF PEEK(a5-P AND PEEK{a + L)-ti THEN PRINT:PRINT''Found At : 4”fiEXi■(a)+CKP 3 <7}: SS
S"1

^00 IF PEEKtaJ-s THEN PR INTj PRINT "Found At: 4'’HEXt Ea )+CHfii <7} : SSS*1

310 IF PEEK(a)-205 AND PEEK{a + l)-30 AND PEEK ta>-187 THEN LE>CATE 20 ^ 6 : PRlNT'-pOS

gibU KFY-PHESS Ghaat Found At: 4''HEX*(« 3 +CHRS:9S

S-1

220 NEXT a

230 LOCATE 33/&: PRINT “Goar ch Fiiilabad! J ! "+CHRf (7); IF 33S**0 THEN LOCATE 35.11:PRI
NT"** NOT FOUND "*“';OOGUB SOOiRUN ELSE SOSUB 3o0tRUN
240 MODE L:LOCATE 15,1 s PRINT”ARE YOU BURE7'*

250 al-INKEYJ ta**UPPER.t(a5?

260 IF af-”Y” THEN MODE 2tLtST
270 IF THEN MODE KtRETUHN

230 GOTO 250

290 MODE L:LOCATE 15,1^PEN 3?PRJNT'“*** ERROR *‘^":PE1T 1 jLOCATE IS,5:PRlNT“SOHRY!

- HO CAN DOV'iFOR a-1 TO 40^ SOUND 1+RND*5.45+RHD*I0
0,4,4zNEJTT:LOCATE 12.7:PRINT"Err&r In LINEt "ERLiCALL 4BB10:HODE 2:LIST
300 LOCATE 34.24: PRINT" ( PRESS ANY KEY r'rCALL fiBEiesRETORW
310 LOCATE 33,a4iPRINT"Mem6ry Free : “lNT(IfIMEM/10341-'K^'jHETLFHN

PagB23

IMODilSI

THE WAY FORWARD

Nick Hutton
investigates the
modem of the
future from Miracom.

T he Miracom dual standard HST
modem has for some time been
at the lop of many Com ms users*
Chrisbnas lists. It was (as far as I can
remember) the first modem to offer a
real 96(K) bps, a value excluding com¬
pression, and many other techniques
which improve throughput When the
first 2400 baud modems became af¬
fordable, huge numbers of bulletin
boards and online services sprung up.
It was then practical to move volumes
of files around, without incurring a
monumental phone bill. Today 2400 is
the norm, most modems come with
MNP5 compression and many have
V42 Bis facilities (for an explanation of
these terms see the earlier article on
buying modems), llie age of the 96(X)
baud modem has now well and truly

/ \

•- 9

miracom

arrived, ITiere are no qualms about
poor support or a lack of BBS’s to call,
these 9^0 bps modems are fast drop¬
ping in price, but only now have they
really reached the level ofyour average
computer user, just getting started in
comms.

So where does the HST come in?
Well, Miracom’s modem will function
at 9600, that is V32. ^So what?**, you
may say, “it is possible to purchase v32
modems far cheaper”. However any
computer user realises that sooner or
later his latest piece of equipment will
become obsolete. Upgrades are not
alwa^ practical and, in some cases,
the piece of hardware must be totally
replaced. Wliat the user needs is some
sort of “buffer*'. The intelligent user
will look notto what is here today butto
what is to come. The duel standard

HST offers what Miracom call high
speed transm ission, an i ncred i b le 14400'
bps! In addition it offers sometliing
called ASL, adaptive speed levelling.
ITiis requires some further explana-
don. All high speed modems will at¬
tempt to keep a connection running at
optimum speed by slowing down the
data, in effect, lowering the density of
informadon flying back and forth. A
noisy line means the modem will slow
things down until a reliable speed is
reached. TTiis feature is also becoming
more common. What makes the HST
special, is its ability to dynamically adapt
to line quality, that is it will slow data
down if the line noise is bad but it will
also start to speed up if things improve.
\^Tien moving large files this feature is
inval uable. Even with the digital system
X exchanges, one still encounters the
odd Med egg on the line. With the
ability to truly adapt to its environment
the HST is way ahead of most modems.

What all this means is that to an
extent the ds HST is future proof. It
happily provides the popular v32 trans¬
mission oftoday, and when 14400 baud
modems become more popular (as they
undoubtedly will), it will not be out of
dale. ITiis factor must be considered
when looking at the price of the HST,
remember “buy in haste, repent at lei¬
sure!” The recent addition ofthe V32bis
function is really outstanding, this
standard provides excellent transfer

rates and compression.

Well, that’s most of the revolution¬
ary technolo^ covered. Wtb all those
new and exotic features one might think
that the modem would be rather tricky
to use. Nothing could be further from
the truth, this is the MOST standard
and easily controlled modem I have
seen. All the Hayes commands work as
expected and I was able to plug it in and
immediately get to work. My 2400
MNPb modem was almost impossible
to configure, with acres of dip switches.

Special note must be taken of the
modem’s inbuilt help screens. These
can be called up to give such details
as factory default settings and
the configuration stored in its
non volatile ram. it’s this
sort of Care and consid¬
eration which really
stands out

Erom the
outside, the
HST is
quite dis¬
tinctive,
it is by
compari¬
son to other
modems quite
large, taking up a fair
chunk of my limited desktop
space. Its slimline design is attractive
but 1 sometimes wonder if it should
have been a little higher in order to give

PaS^24

Amstrad User March 1992

more desk space. Tlie froat panel boasts
no fewer than 12 LEDs, This array is at
first a little confusing, (especially if
you, like me, are used to 6 or 4) but,
being able to tell what is going on at a
glance is veiy useful. Some modems
which boast many of the features of the
HST have adopted more expensive
LCDs to give information to the user. 1
would consider these an unnecessary
expense and all they seem to do on
most modems, ie the Kacal Maxam V,
is display the normal modem result
codes which appear on your computer
screen anyway.

The back of the HSl' is fairly plain
with the normal 25 pin connector and
lead out to your phone line. The power
supply is extemd. but does have a long
enough lead so it doesn’t have to be
near die modem and can be safely hid¬
den away. I did notice a blanked out
panel, which perhaps could be fixed
over, which was some sort of output to
your phone. There is also a voice/data
button on the front facia which will
allow you to hear if the line noise is just
courtesy of BT or if, Ibr example, one of
your cohabitants has picked up the
phone in another room. Dip switches
are provided and are set up for nonnal
use by Miracom, in my case they
needed no mollification. A volume dial
is found under the front lip of the mo¬
dem facia and is quite handy, cert^nly
less fuss to use than the software tog¬
gles for loud/quiet operation.

The case is plastic and feels a

little flimsy although it serves its pur¬
pose. Forthismoney ametal case would
have been appropriate I think, as there
is a tejidency for things to pile upon the
users desk, possibly one may put
something down on top of the case.
Another interesting, and to my knowl¬
edge unique feature of the HSTL, is that
its tinderstde is decorated witli a brief
summary of dip switch settings and
pinouts etc. Tliis is a real boon as it
means that if you should need to take
the modem from the office to use say,
at home, then the manual is not re¬

quired for all but the most complex of
problem solving.

The standard AT command set is
fully implemented and is quick and
relatively easy to use. The HST even
has help screens (pages of text pro¬
vided as a quick reminder to users of
how to operate the modem), Phone
numbers and your usual configuration
can all be stored in memory so you
need not cart the manual around with
the modem whenever it leaves your
desk.

The manual deserves special men¬
tion as it is really more than just a guide
to operation. It is more of a basic
grounding in comms. lliismay at first
seem a little bewildering but it’s worth
sitting down and reading the manual
because it is well written and very ex¬
tensive. Miracom also provide techni^
cal phone help to get you offthe grou nd.
My usual procedure is not to

read the manual unless something goes
wrong or I get stuck, subscribers to
this school of thought will also have no
problems.

When transferring heavyweight files
over short distances, the HST sets a
blistering pace, and on a local System-
X (digital) exchange, a speed of 3500
cps was obtained, although speeds of
150(kl750 cps were more usual. What
this really means is that files of 30-50K
can be downloaded in a matter of sec¬
onds, It was difficult to generate a poor
line connection (you can never find one
when you want one), but the HST coped
well even when signal clarity dropped,
it was also possible to see it try to
recover when tlie line improved.

However, line noise of any sort will
slow down any modem considerably
and the HST is no exception.

Well, now we get to the question of
price. The DS HSl' with V32 bis is a
high performance modem wdth good
support and sophisticated extras like
the help commands. For this sort of
equipment the price is really not that
bad. Although eight hundred pounds
is certainly not a drop in my ocean,
ITiere is the factor of reduced phone
bills with less time online, and if you
intend to get very heavy use from it it
WILL pay for Itself in time.

As I mentioned near the start of the
review the HST is, to a degree, future
proof, in that its time of maximum
popularity is yet to come. It is this
reassuring trait which makes the HST
a definite must for the really serious
comma user.

N.B After shopping around I found a
company selling the modems for a mere
£549, although this model did not in¬
clude the recent v32BIS functions. So
the message is shop around, discounts
are available if you look hard enough!

Compatability

SPEES

DUPLEX

SPEC

14,400

FDX (Split)

UST

9,600

FDX

V.32

2,400

FDX

V.22 bis

1,200

FDX

v.32/BEai 212A

300

FDX

V.21

Information Box

Product: Miracom Dual Standard HST with V32BIS

Miracom 1 echnology UJ'D
22‘1 Beiwick Avenue
Slough

Berkshire SLl 4QT
Td: 0753 811180

Recommended retail price £995.00

J^strsd User M^cti fSA?

Page 25

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£1 L95

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£1395

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£11.95

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£ 13.95

N-ofth & South ...,.

.£10.95

£13.95

Pit Fighter . h ,.. ^.

£9 30

£14.93

Predawf II

.,£9.50

£1195

Prince ^ Perara ....,

..£8.50

£11.95

Rick Danger^ous 14 ...

..£8.S0

£11.95

R&borflne

.,£9.50

£1195

Shadow Dancer ....

..£9.95

£4 3.95

Sim City

,£10-93

£14.95

Simpunt... .......

.,£9.50

£1195

Smash T V. ..

£9 50

£1195

Super Monaco G-P-- .

.,£9.30

£1193

Super Space Invader

£9.50

£14.95

SWAP(l20fc) .,_.

......

£1193

Terminator II ..

.,£9.50

£1195

Thunder|aws .......

.,£9.50

£14.95

Total Refill

£1195

Toyota Celita G-T. , ,

.,£9.50

£11-95

Turrkan II.........

.,£5.95

WWf Wrestlemania £10-93

£1195

3D ConstriKtion Kli £21.95

£24.95

CARTRIDGES

Barbarian II . .

.£21.95

Batman The Movie .

£21.95

Cnty Cara II ,,,,,,

£24 95

Rre & forget ll .,,.

£24.95

Navy Sial* ....

.£21.95

Operation Thvnderbolt ....

.£24.95

Pang .. 4 -------

.£21.95

Plocung .... . ,

.£24.95

Prxj Tennis ........

.£2L95

Robowp II

.£24.93

COMPILATIONS

CASS DISC
.£H.95

CHART ATTACK; Lotm Eip. ChAGhrat, ^n. ImpaFfjrngie ,, .£1 ..M 5.4S

CARTOOW COU.-Oia^CJ'l.$frit*, 3i!|ffTiwr. Si. ....

DlZZir COLL DU^. FFkiJ. TritPiijy. FWpisi^r. MlDlZy....... .

OftANDSTAND: Cuti. W.Ciifcvd Cflfw. OraSi Pra Tinnli.... £P 1.95 .. .i 15.¥S

WLLTWODQCOL: fWiwcop, GliBwtll, Mi?«, I.JwsLC........ .£11.95 .. .£15.^3

MAX RACK; Tumcin II, Sj^,5l Drifan, Nifk Shft...£11.95 .. .£M.93

MOVIE PREM lERE: Tunte. B.Futll, Grwdl. I.Jm** LC.....£1; 1.95 . - IS.9I

SOCCER STARS: KidkW A CsHi II ..£|&9S ...£M.9S

SUPCR l€RO£S- iut l£ S(rid«r ll, | ^nti, Spy L. Mi .£11.95.. .£ 15.93

SUPER SEGA; Sup. P^anica EWAT, Cnckrf™ Am. Shluti£14.95 .. .£KL93
SUPER SIM PACK: Iffl IDTevO.Cifi II. lu^ I99fl. A E*^r......... .£13.99 .. .£10.93

TOLK.TRILOG'T: The Ian) Of filn|(. Studbifl Mcnjgr..£ IflSS .,. £14.93

VfflT. WORLIiS^ Drills. T&t^l Edp^-. C>ypE, (Uftie M^j^r.£11.93 .. .£13.95

STR ATEG Y IM U LATIO N

CASS DISC

Ancient Battks .....£11.95 £11.95
Battle Of Th?&wlgt £10.95 £11.95

BhscktHitten.£7.95 .....

Calftwuj ^.f} Brtdet £9.95 £ I L9S
CoIejssue 4.Q Chess .,. £B.S0 £ J 1.95

Crete 1941....£10.95 £^1.95

Em. HughsE Arc Quiz £9.S& £l I.9S
Em. Hu^hetlncS« £S.50 £11.95
Europ. Super League ....... £ 11.95

FI5 Strike E^le_£8.50 £H.95

FIfi Combat Pikrt £11.95 £lS.95

Cuflihip .£11.95 £15.95

Kick Off (I ...£8.50 £ll.9S

Man. Dnlietf Eur&pe £9.95 £12.95
MmdstrEtchen £ F S.9S

Pkaie* (6l28frftlrt £^5.95

R.B. I. 2 biEebail...... £9_SO £ 14.95

5<rabbkDelu>«eSI2e. £12.95

Silent Strvlce.£0.50 £11.95

Super Maine* Q.P.. -. £9.50 £ 12.95
SWAP(i28k) ............ £1193

Tc)^*u Calici G.t,,., £9.50 £ 11.95
Trtv. Puraulc Genus £M.95 £15.95

Warid:OiMRu5ti^..r£9.50 .

Yes ChancelkM-. £15.93

3D Conitructio* Kit £21.95 £21.95

BUSINESS/UTILrTIES

Advanced Art Studio .......£ 19.95

AHX txcfa tvim r ....£20.93

AMX Mouse Sc Art .. .£64.95 £64.95
AM!X Mouse & Stop

Prett __,,.,£74.95

Cr. Coutse Typing

...(6128+PCW) £20.95

Miiiertsk 128_,(l28kj £27.95

liasterfile Nl..(128k) £29.95

Minam...£23.93

Mini Office II.£12-95 £16,95

Manager (4 PCW).£2-4.95

Prospell .. ,£20-95

PrtJtext .£16.95 £23.95

Protype ................. .£23.95

Sprices Alive Complfer ,,.,, , £24.93

Stackmirk^.£29.95

SiapPre&s ...[ 128k) £39.95

Tas-Sign (6120+PCW)...,,. .£29.95

Tas-Spell...£20.93

Taidlai^_ £20-95

Taiword ^64.£20.95 £24.95

Tw*6rd6l28,,...,.£24.95

ACCESSORIES

Amstra4 DDI DiK Drhe . ,,£159.95
Amslrad FDI 2nd Drive .... .£99.95
Amstrad KPI + P5 far 6 J 20 £30.90

AmSirad M PI MOD. f*f 464 £28.95
Amstrad MP3 TV Tua

CTM644. ,.,£39.95

CaEEette Alignment Kit...... .£7.95

CiiiatiE Lead __£3.95

Cmetie Reea^^r , ,£20-93

CautSte Recorder 4 kadi .. .£23.95
CoverDDIfFDI Disc Drive .. .£193
CoMtf DM P 2f >000 Series „,, £4.93
C&ver 5ct 464+^6120+ MfCal £8.95
Ctjver Set 464f6128 M ^ Col ... £7.93

OiK Bflk 80 3.5^ 50+ 3",.£9.95

Disc Drive Cleaner V ....... .£5.95

Dtics 3" ... £2 j 6S Ea. 3 for,,. £ 1130
OiK* 3" 10 F*f ,,..,...,...£23-95

FDI CaWefar664;6l28.£7.95

GeniusMouse + Adv Art.... .£49.95
GenluEMouEB + Adv An £120 £49.93
jaytclck Splitter£8.93
Keybaard Ext Uath CPC+ ... .£8.95

Keyboard Ext 464.£7.95

Ktybaard ExiUads6F20.£8-95

Memory Exp. 64k 464 f£64 .. .£44.95

Mouie Mat___ £4.93

Mulilface II CPCf CPC+.£46.95

Printer Ca We CPC Imtr —. ,.£8.93

Printer Cable CPC 2frilr.£40.95

Printer CaUe CPC+ 2mcr.£7.95

Ribbon Rerink -- £il-95

Sur^e Ptc?tt<ilon Plug___ .£I2»95

4£4+f6120+ Exp. Port Adap £9.95

JOYSTICKS

J^SIiLADfr2......£7.95

cheetah &u|...£1195

CHEETAH MACH I .......... .£1 P.95

Cheetah Starprebe^£ 11.9S

CHEETAH T^flOitt ....£9.95

CHEETAH 125+...........£9.95

CDMPf TlTiON PftO SOOO.£ 14.95

CRUISER Multl«*9tJr .£IDl9S

KOKUX HAVIGATOR,£!L95

KOWIX SPEEDKIMG.....£10.95

QUICKSHOT TU^ ill _£9.95

QUICKJOTJETHCHTER,,,.£14.9$

ST4HGRAY .. £13.95

£IPST1C1C SUPER PRO - -£14.93

EDUCATION

PRE-SCHOOL

AGE CASS DISC

l(t5tefsMrMefl4.@£fl95 £12.95
Caesar's Travels 3-9 £1195 .....

Here there Hr Men

4^8 £1195 £12.95

PRIMARYWORDSKILLS

better Spelling
Early Words
Fijn WihWordt
Happy Letten
Hippy Writing
Lets Ptay Wondl
Pily ^ Read Ft I
Ptiy 8 Read ft 2
Rtid 8)jht Away I
Read R^t Awiyl

Rtid R^ Awyl
Word lung

'h £9.95
34 £3-95
7- £H.5Ci

3- 6 £10.95
]-6 £10.95

4- 9 £12.95
4+£n.K
4^£F0.Wi

5- e £9.95

6- 9 £9-95
7+ £9.95

5t£|p.95

£13.95

£11.95

£15.95

£12.95

£14.93

£11.95

£1193

£4195

£1195

£15.95

PRINTERS

STAR LC20 9 Pin Mono .., ,£139.93
SPtED {Pica. cpsj:F50 Draft, 37 NLQ
FEATUftES:- 4 IsfLQ Fanil, D&ubk/
Qvad Slia QilfWters, Frictimi/
Tractor feed, Paper Parking,

5TAR LC20O 9 fin Colour £239,95
SPEED (PT<t, CP4200 High S6.Draft
150 Draft. 37 NLQ
FEATURES:- Colwr Printinf, 4 NLQ
Fcnis, Doubie/^Ouad Ske. I^i
Park.

iptr

star LC24/10 24 Pin Mena £229.95
SPEED (Pica, cps): 130 Draft. 50 LQ
FEATURES:- 4 Letter QuaWt/ Fonts
Douhle/Quad Size Chiraner,
Oullww, Shadow. Paper Parking etc

PRIMARY MATHSSKILLS

EariyMjihs 4^ £0.95 £11.93

Fur With Numbers 7. £0.50 £11-95

Happy Numbers 3-3 £10.93 £13.93
LEtsPLHumben 4-8 £12.95 £12.95
Lils Piay Mm>ey 4^0 £1195 £1193
Magic Mitli? 4-8 £8.95 £12-95

Primary Matbs 1-12 £24.95 £24.95
Timeman I 4-9 £10-95 £15-95
Timeman2 4-t0£ 10.95 £15.95

MATHEMATICS

Better Maths 42-16 £9.95 £13.95
MiefT5 Mithj 9^Ad £24.93 £24.95
Mega Maths 15+ £24,95 £21.95

SCIENCES

Biology I 12-r 6 £9.93 £l>.95

I2-F6£9,95 £13.95
fhyaks I 12-16 £9.95 £13.95

LANGUAGES

1 1

m 7id

k.23

KUCO

STAKlCie

m 7,00

k.23

MjX

muim

4.13 m

2DJOO

LCJWHOhlO

350 ilLQO

LOflOCOL

m xitc

Funfch**! II
Funschool II
Funscheoi ll
Funschool 3 or 4
Funtchool 3 OP 4
Funschool 3 or 4
The Tbree Bears
Granny's Garden
Dra|on Wcrid
Giant Kilter
Answer Back Je-r

6- a SD
6 8 £9.50
B+ £9.50

5- £10.95
3^7 £10.93
7+- £10.95

5+6128

6- 106128
6-106120
9-14

6h|| ^.50

£11-95

£11,95

£11-95

£13.95

£13,95

£16.95

£20-95

£13.95

£14.95

QUESTION PACKS FOR
ANSBACKJNR

Arithmstk

6ri 1 £4.95

£7.95

SpeEIIng

6-11 £4.93

£7.95

Mat. fllHPry

10+ £4.95

£7.95

20th Cent. Hist

12^ £4.93

£7.95

English WordE

12+£4.95

£7.95

W&rtd GMgnphy £4.95

£7.95

All PrinK-rs are Supplied with a <abli
and are rea^ co u&e.

Pricei include VAT and fost^.

3 Day Secur^cir Delivery Add £5.

PRINTER RIBBONS

QUANTITY

SEGA GAMES CONSOLES

SEGA MASTER SYSTEM II

£59.99

Fndud« ConiFol Pad. RF SwiKh Sw
Mains Adaptor, Alex Kidd Game

Fnsiwh Mirtreas

11^^ £13.95

£16.95

ACCESSORIES

Germsit Master

11+£13-93

£1695

Additional Control Pad

£6.99

Italian Tutor

11+£13.95

£16 95

Conlrc3l Stick

£14.99

Spanish Tuwr

ll+£l3.9S

£16.95

Rapid FJre Unit

£3.99

M4crD En-gjtsh

0-Ad £14.9S

£2495

Light PhiE*r + Cartridge
Maiter System GameE from

£44.99

£9.99

GENERAL

SEGA MEGA DRlVi £fc29.99

With Control Pad. Sonic Hedgehog

ACCESSORIES

Additional Concrol Pad £14,99

Power Stkk (Rapid Fire) £34.99

P*wer Base Convertor Allows U-se
Df MjHer Sywem Game* £29.99

Mega Drive Games fr*m £19.99

SEGA GAME GEAR £99.99

Portable Colour Gime^ System

10% Off All Sera Games
Over £15.00

M/STSTEM G-Loc £26.99

M /SYSTEM Super Kick Off £26.99

M/5y$tem Leaderboard £26.99

M/DRIVE Sonk Hed. 5 ehog £31,49

M/Driv* Sfp‘ee( OF Rag4 £31.1?

Game Gear Shlnobi £1149

GAME GEAR WClasE LBoard £1149

Qcy

Totil,.

NEW GAMES AVAILABLE ON DAY OF ftELEASEr PLEASE PHONE FOR AVAILABILITY
TELEPHONE/FAX ORDERS (0257) 421^15 Mon ~ Fri 9.00-17.30 Sat 9.00-12-30 (Answerphoref Fax other timei)

Dwcription Pritt Name;____^

......... Addresii; .....^

i !■ + - i- + - i -4

TdNo:
Dste: ,,,,
Signed;

PRICES INCLUDE POST a PACKING IN U K PLEASE MAKE CHEQUES/PO'S PAYABLE TO O.J. SOFTWARE
I tn<bM CH/PO for £ Or d«bic ACCESS/VISA No, _____ i*?

O.J. SOFTWARfi, 2« MOSSY LEA ROAD, WRIGHTINGTON, NR WIGAN, LANCS- WNi 9RN
MOST ORDERS ARE DESPATCHED BY RETURN (OUT OF STOCK ITEMS NORMALLY WITHIN ONE WEEK)
OVERSEAS ORDERS: SOFTWARE ITEMS OVER £10.00 Ea POST FREE, OTHERS ADD £1,00 Ea.

★ SPECIAL OFFER * ALL SOFTWARE ORDERS OVER £J5 RECEIVE A FREE CALCULATOR

Amstraif User MarpA 1932

Don your composing gloves as ACU tries out

Ubisoft’s excellent Equinox, braves the force of

the Aussies in World Class Rugby and has a

Mt Squad

5 (9) l>ragon Kidja

Hit Squad

6 UO} BuSblo BobSIa

Hit Squad

7 (5) Altered Beast I

Hit Squad i

8 (14) Magic Land Dia^

Coda Masters

bash at the host of goodies included on the

Superheroes Collection,

mww

Mozart eat your heart

out.

A Jittle late^ but it packs
powerful punch.

1 (3) Outtro'coin^pa

Cade Masters
Z {!) New Zealand Story
Hit Squad

3 (B) Moonwalher

Kixx

4 (NE) Chase HQ

9 (11) Dlz^ Panic

Cede Masters

10 (7) rerminator 2

Ocean

11 (6) Firsit Divf^en Manager

CtMle Masters

12 (4) Quattro Skills

Code Masters

13 (20) Diz^ Collection

Code Masters

14 (12) Turho Outrun

Kixx

R 15 (13) Batnuiit ^ Tlw Mavie
Hit Squad

15 m Shinofai

Trtinix

17 . (IS) Indiana Jonas - Last
Cfusado

KIkx ^

^18 (NE) Chuckle Egg v

Pick ‘II' Choose
19 (NE) The Match

EI&H Games

; 29 (11) Quattro Cartoon

Code Masters

i’ Last month's position In bracket s. > '

Tie latest offerings from Hie Fun School stable, a
IMIe light music from Ubisoft, lunar adveNure in
Moontorc and all the latest Budget Blasts to hit
the shelves. “You’d be very foolish to miss it!” -

Amy Dobson (Haiiy’s Aunty).

Amtm^ User IfSarch 19^

Page 29

hose clever chappies
at Audiogenic have
certainly tried to
cram as much as possible
into this little offering, in an
excellent attempt to capture
the true atmosphere of the
game of rugger and, to a cer
tain extent, they have
succeeded.

What this means in real
terms, is that playing World
Class Rugby really is a pretty
good simulation of the re^
thing. As a result, if you are
one of the few people who
have never had any true con¬
tact with the sport, then you
may have to get hold of a
good rule book and acquaint
yourselves with some of the
regulations before you get
going, otherwise you may get
left in the dark from time to
time concerning forward
passes and freeing the ball
when you go down.

ITiat aside, World Class
Rugby should be a guaran¬
teed wi n ner with rugby fans.
Flicking through the open¬
ing menu, you will see that
you have a choice of games
to startoffwith, rangingfrom
an international friendly,
recommended to get a feel

for the moves, through full
league season, to the ultimate
World Cup Challenge.

Choose your favourite
team, be it England, Ireland,
Scotland, Wales, or some of
the lesser teams like Aus¬
tralia and the All Blacks (!!)
and get gunning for the tries.

Kicking off, your player,
either in possession or clos-
estto the play, is indicated by
an arrow. Put your weight
behind your joystick and get
rucking and mauling.

Once you have the ball,
keep looking for openings,
either for a run, or for a pass
down the line, selected by
pressing tlie fire button and
pushing the stick in the re¬
quired direction.

TTiere are a whole host of
options to choose from dur¬
ing play, including dummy
runs and. passes, special
moves from scrums and line-
outs, as well as rucks and
mauls.

If you manage to get near
the opponent’s goal line,
make sure y ou know the pro¬
cedure for diving over the
line, and try to get under the
posts to get the best conver¬
sion chance you can.

I t •<1-
HfttRLDCLASSRUOm

The World Cup is over,
but can you capture the
trophy for England?

Again, there are options to
be considered when going
for the kicks, so scan the ra¬
dar screen to determine your
best length and loft for the
shot.

World Class Rugby may
lack a little on the colour
stakes, but that may be the

result of the jam-packed
game programming, allow¬
ing you to get a true feel for
the game and making for a
superb simulation.

Can you make it all the
way to the final? Thaf s up to
you but, if you like Rugby,
then you’ll enjoy trying.

Amstrait User March 1992

Page SO

MMDCLASSItUeBY

World Class Rugby

fUfll Audiogenic | E\ S^sffiMlO.99

68%

75%

: M.

MAI

iUI!

LOA. s'.“I .

ick up your kn^>sack
and get set for suijffi
ejjlc swordplay in #ri?
excellent offering from
Atalantis; The scenario is
simple; if a little obvious,
concerning a d^sel in tUs*
tress, but the gameplay is

The Dark Lord has taken
lalena hostage. and your task
is to battle your way through

An^tad t/ser Search 1992

four arduous landscapes,
taking on his evil hordes as
you go, in a desperate bid to
save her from a fate worse
than dead).

Starting off, you already
have a fairly awesome ar-
monry, consisting of sword
and throwing d^gers. How-
ever, if you want to Stay
around for a while, youH need
to buy some more pretty fast.

Moontorc

Adantis

88 %

87%

Cassette only

89%

V: •/* V

yi • I

'i • "i # *i *

tj* • •• •-

• s 1 • • ■*

. !<• •• •>*
•• M

tMMM* MW w

Derring-do abounds as you rush
to the rescue of beautiful Princess
Lalena.

999mkt99m
I* " *V *iri* * ^

The only way to progress
through the four different
levels; the arid plains, bot¬
tomless caverns, soaring
mountains and dark, forbicl-
ding forests respectively, is
t© collect as much gold as
you can.

Picking up as many chests
as you can will fill your eof-
lers nicely, though you will
have to pick off the guards to
get your hands on it. Once
you have, keep your eyes
peeled for the shops which
are scattered over the levels.
Here, you can purchase ex-

&a shields, spells, keys and
parts of the precious
Moontorc,

What do you need the
iMoonLorc for? Basically, if
you want to get past the vi-
cious Tollmen at the end of
each level, you must coUect
the three parts of the

Moontorc, otherwise youH
never get anywhere near
Lalena,

lise your gold sparingly
and make sure you have
enough to buy the pieces,
allowing you to move on to
bigger and hadder oppo*
nents.

Buying the colour coded
keys at the shop is also a
good idea. Most of the im¬
portant items you will need
are locked, behind doors, so
buying as many keys to fit
the same colour doors will
certainly help you out,

Scount around for extra
items and food as you go, as
every 1 i tlJe hi t will help you in
this superb quest. Featuring
some very smart graphics
and excellent sound eiJects,
Moontorc is a joy to play.

Use your spells carefully.

p P P P #

PP PP Pt f

mim “**■ f ss

as they only work against
certain creatures. You’ll have
to work out which ones for
yourself, so a little trial and
error is called for hei^e,
Above all, MoontGrc is
great hm. Itll certainly hook
you from very early on and.
for the price, it has to be one
of the best offerings on the
market right now. If you like
your swordplay with a little
strategy ihrown in for good
measure, then make sure you
get hold of this one soon.

Jim Johnson

Look out kids, Europress is back with
a new dinnension in learning as Fun
School 4 hits the streets*

T he Fun School tra¬
dition of computer-
aided education has
been with us for years and,
since its very first outing, has
proved to be a total success
with parents and children
alike.

Each release is awaited
with baited breath and each
new development has met

Take all that on board, and
add an extremely large dollop
of fun on top, and I think
you’ll agree that the new Fun
School series looks set to
become every bit as
successful asltsprdecessors.

Targeting three different
age groups, each package in
the series has an instantly
recognisable character,

with the critical acclaim it so
rightly deserves.

In this age of ever-
changing teaching patterns,
it is becoming increasingly
difficult to keep up with
educational trends but, true
to form. Europress’ latest set
of releases making up the
Fun School 4 series, have all
been developed in
conjunction with education¬
alists, to adhere to current
National Curriculum
guidelines.

As a result, each package,
whether it be for rising 5’s or
top Juniors, forms a truly
invaluable piece of software,
for use both in the classroom
and at home.

which should become firm
favourites with the children.
In the Under 5s package,

Teddy the Bear sits through
all of the programs with the
child, while Freddy the Frog
helps out with the puzji^les
and lessons for the five to
seven years olds.

For the seven to 11 year
age group, the excellent
character of Sammy the Spy
pops up time and time again
to add the fun to the serious
learning curve.

Starting off at the
beginning, the under fives
package introduces six

separate, colourful and easy-
to-use programs to stimulate
th e ch ildren while they learn.

Teddy Paint encourages
the child to create pictures
using circles, triangles,
squares and many other
objects, to make playground,
picnic and seaside scenes.
Some of the results of the
program are truly amazing
and will certainly give the
child a lot of Joy, when the
results are viewed.

House and Garden helps
to develop an understanding
of the names of colours and
parts of the house. With
rising difficulty levels, this
program really coaches the
child through the learning
process.

In Addition, the child must
count all manner of objects,
with correct answers re¬
warded by the teddies going
out to play. Simple addition
is also catered for in high
difficulty levels, to stretch
even the brightest child.

Teddy’s Books also helps
out in word recognition, as
the child is asked to point out
which book Daddy Ted is
reading. Picking out which
book is missing from the
shelf will give the child a
rewarding sequence, whilst
encouragement is given to
try again if the question was
answered incorrectly.

Getting aboard the Fun
Train is an excellent intro¬
duction to simple reading
vocabulary, where the child
must match pictures and,

Amtrad User Mercii 1992

Page 32

later on, words with pictures,
to develop recognition.

Last on this superb first
package, is Teddy D’s
Karaoke, allowing the child
to sing along with eight
popular nursery rhymes. On
the higher difhculty levels,
the ch ild can tap out the tunes
on the keyboard, thus
enhancing keyboard skills
during the fun.

A superb outing all round.
Fun School 4 for the Under
Fives is designed to en^
courage and develop the
child's skills at all times
making it an essential aid to
the learning process at this
all-important age.

Moving on to the second
package in the series, Fun
School 4 for the five to seven
year old age group provides
some excellent insights into
mathematical, typing and
recognition problems.

Shopkeeper, the first
program in the offering,
introduces the child to values
of coinage, playing the part
of the shopkeeper and having
fun selling goods to cus¬
tomers, all the while adding
and subtracting figures.

In the Library, the mixed
up books must be rearranged
into alphabetical order,
starting with initial letters and
working dirough to full titles
and authors of the child’s
favourite books. As Freddy
pops up again and again, the
child will certainly enjoy this
trip to the library.

Opposites is a program
designed to help the child
learn new words by matching
opposites. Starting with
simple three and four letter
words, more difficult words
are introduced In later levels
to expand vocabulaty greatly.

Outpacing the crocodile is
the aim of the game in
Typing, which introduces the
child to typing single letters
to start with, before
advancing on to groups of
letters, word s and, ultimately,
fully punctuated sentences.
As the hungry crocodile
advances, typing has never
been more fun.

In the Log Cabin, children
must solve entertaining
maths sums to help Freddy
build his cabin. Starting w ith

Amstrad Us&r March 1992

addition, this program also
covers subtraction, multi¬
plication up to the lliX tables
and division.

The last program in this
suite, Basketball, lets the
child work out number and
letter series in the gy m! Early
levels test simple alphabetical
series, while later stages
tackle number multiples to
really get the child’s mind
working.

As an tdd to educational
concepts, this package
cannot come more highly
recommended. Stretching
the child's mind as it does,
this suite of programs makes
an excellent choice to expan d
on earlier outings in the fields
of maths, writing and
recognition,

ITie presence of Sammy
the Spy in tl:e 7 to U year old
package ensures a collection
of learning programs which
children will come to love
and want to tackle time and
time again.

The package consists of
six challenging and
fascinating educational
gcames, each developed to
help children progress within
key stage two of the National
Curriculum. Featuring hil¬
arious animation and
attention-grabbing sound
effects, the help screens and
clues, included i n each game,
ensure that children can
always deal with the
questions and tasks involved.

The first game. Desert
Dates, helps the child to learn
important historical dates by
cracking open the stones of
the pyramid. As the child
progresses, he/she will be
able to pinpoint each event in
history to its century (levels
1 & 2), decade (level 3) and,
finally, to its precise year
(level 4). A superb offering
which has instant appeal.

Spy Quiz tests the child’s
spelling, maths skills,
science, geography and
general knowledge via an
amusing, multiple choice,
trivia quiz, guaranteed to
stimulate and educate.

In Proportions, fractions,
decimals and percentages
are dealt with, through
entertaining questions such
as “what proportion of spies

is wearing hats?”, with the
difficulty levels increasing
through the levels to really
test the child’s mind.

Exchange Rates, an
extremely topical subject,
allows the child to get to grips
with European monetary
units, presenting conversion
proble ms to deal with, as well
as comparative values later
on.

Sammy the Spy's flight
times are in question in
Timetable. To start with,
simple addition and sub¬
traction is required to work
out the flight times, while
later levels include more
complex series of sums, to
fully stretch the child and
help Sammy to catch his
plane.

The final program in this
series, Spy Travels, intro¬
duces the child to world
geography, as you zoom
around the world looking at
oceans and contin ents. As the
child progresses, he/she
must then seek out countries,
rivers and cities to guide an
aeroplane to cryptically-
described locations.

All in all, a totally
comprehensive educational
aid to the curriculum based

teaching subjects for the
seven to 11 year old age
groups, and a package that
should seriously increase the
child’s interest in and
attention to, the learning
process.

Each of the tliree separate
packages features brilliantly
animated sequences and
superb graphics to grab the
child’s attention straight

away. Tire excellent sound
effects complement the
programs throughout and
should leave the child eager
to try again.

Correct answers are
always well rewarded, whilst
incorrect answers lead to
more help and encour¬
agement for anoth er attempt.

Quoted as being “thebest
home educational software
there is ” all I can say is that,
whoever said that has
extremely sound judgeme nt.
Whatever I have outlined
here cannot do full Justice to
thissuperb suite of programs
and, 1 would strongly
recommend that you look at
the Fun School 4 packages
for yourself to see the full
quality of the product.

From what 1 have seen
however, the Fun School 4
series should prove to be
every bit as popular and
successful as the earlier
releases, all of which have
enjoyed phenomenal sales
figures.

Millions of satisfied
customers around the world
cannot be all wrong, so try
them for yourself and see
whatyou have been missing,

John Taylor

Fun School 4
Cost;

Disc £16.99 each
Cassette £12.99 each

Furopress Software
Europa House
AcUington Park
Maccle<dield SKIO
4NP

Teh 0625 859323

Page 33

imuiiyi

I f you are already over the
ripe age of ten years old,
then you’ve got an awful
lot of catching up on the likes
of Mozart and Schubert to
do. Having said that, you’ve
got to start somewhere on
tlie road to musical success
and you won’t get a much
better start than by kicking
off wi 111 th i B masterpiece from
Ubisoft.

Designed with both musi-

sic included with the Equi¬
nox program .There are three
in all, ranging from classical
through to experimental,
each with a different rhythm,
tempo and sound.

Obviously, as you scan
through the sequences on
show with these tracks, you
will notice that an awful lot of
hard work has been put in to
create the overall assembly
of different sounds.

cian and iion-niusician alike

ill mind, all you need to do is
follow the precise instruction
[nanual, and it won’t be too
long before you are compos¬
ing your own hit singles or
lilting classical pieces.

You don’t believe me?
Well, all 1 can say is that, it
only took me a couple of
hours to get a fully rhythmic
melody, wilii percussion ac-
coinpauimeni, off the
ground. And 1 am tone deaf!
It really is that simple.

Ok, so a quick glance at
the menu and the multiple
references to sound enve¬
lopes, cutting and attaching
assemblies may send your
mind reeling. However, at all
times remember that the
manual has been pul together
in a totally logical manner,
allowing yon to get a grip on
the basics to start with, bc'-
fore moving you on from
fundamentals, to creating
fully worki ng pieces of music.

Your best bet to start with,
as it says in the manual, is to
actually listen to one of the
[pre-recorded pieces of mu¬

Now what you must do, is
try to take each sequence of
music in turn. \Mien looked
at individually, the music
becomes much less like a
totally foreign language and
more like something even the
most untalented musician
could liandle.

Once you have loaded one
of the musical pieces, t lie best
thing to do is simply to ex¬
periment. This can be easily
done by choosing the Manual
option from the main menu,
which can be accessed at any
time by pressing the Space
Bar.

In manual, you can use the
keyboard as a musical in¬
strument, with the letters
between TAB and RETURN
as the white keys and the
numbers as the black keys.
Simply play around and make
some noise.

Even if you don’t come up
with anything staggering to
St art with, yo u should be able
to vent some fnistration on
the old keyboard at any rate.

file next idling to do, is

t/sermSnh 19SZ

Wl7i _

m^ike a note of the sounds
you have been producing,
remembering I he keys you
jiave used in your melody,
before transferring to Edit'
ing mode from the main
menu.

Now all you need lo do is
place your chosen sounds
within tlie sequence display,
much as the original piece
was written, and keep refer¬
ring to the listen to Sequence
option to see how your work
is progressing.

Now, this really is taking
Equinox at its simplest, but
as a place to start, you really
can’t beat it. Once you have
got your main sounds in
place, using the short cut
keys to choose octaves for
the sounds, your next step is
to see about attting in a per¬
cussion beat to go with your
music. D 0 tie t hat? Idghi, how
about a few backing sounds
to fill out the melody?

lliis is where the three
columns in the sequence
come in, allowing you to fit in
three very different simulta¬

neous sounds, giving rise to
the hill musical sound which
is impossible to achieve from
the CPC’s usual monophonic
keyboard.

Ifyou have got this far,you
will realise that working with
Equinox really is not as diffi¬
cult asy ou first imagined. Qn
top of that, it really is reward-
ing to hear your first
mini-composition being re¬
played lo you through ilie
speakers.

Get hold of a blank data
format disc and you can start
saving your early efforts,
which you will probably
cringe at later on, when you
have fully mastered the pro¬
gram.

Remember however, that
you must not only save the
music itself, but also the
soun d s, enabling yo it to h ave
both the visual display on the
screen and the audio effect.

Without this, you would
not be able to go back and
rework your masterpieces
into something more palat¬
able later on.

Like all pieces of compo si¬
tion, you will need to keep in
mind what your final goal is,
making it easier for you to
add more sequences, to an
incredible total of 20, How'-
ever, ifyou work on channels
separately, you should be
able to keep going with the
flow.

For instance, once you
have W'orked out tlie main
melody of your tune, carry^ it
straight through to the end.
whether it tills out 1 or the
full 20 sequences. Once that
is done, you can listen to that
as you pi’ogreas with the ac¬
companiment and fill in the
spaces as you go.

Obviously, it is going to
take you a fair old while to
come up with anything to
compare with the classical
Didotrack, whlchcomes with
the program, but listen to it,
watch the sequences care-
fully as they scroll past, or
study them individually, and
you will soon learn the secret
of coniposing.

In terms of musical out¬
put, Ubisofl’s Equinox can
produce results previously
unheanl of on the CPC. By
using the stereo speakers on

the Plus machines, you can like to tlirow themselves into
utilise sound coming from an offering without much
either sideand/or from both, preamble, will certainly have
to create truly astounding to reatl the first chapter of
sounds. the manual to get started but,

On top of that, the ability even so, you should still be
to try out the sounds first on able to create something to
the manual keyboard ccr- your liking,
tal nly helps lo get yo u i n the However, for real success

swing of things, before yon stories, 1 suggest you take
actually start noting things time out to study the text
down for real carefully, allowingyouto fully

Being able lo lake evciy- grasp the sheer scope of this
Ihingone sequence at a time, brilliant program for your-
and the ability to listen to selves,
your music Irom any stage, Renieniber, only through
be if the beginning or some- hard graft can you become a
where near the middle, also genius and, even though
gives you complete freedom Ubisofl has taken much of
to do whatever yon like and the grind out of your
change whatever you like progress, you will still need
until you arc completely sat- lo understand the rudiments
isfied with your work. of the programs and their

Getting the hang of simple functions, before you can
composing, however, is only create fully blown niaster-
the beginning. Once you pieces, lo compare with the
have got to grips with the work supplied,
program, your next step is Take your time and you
the creation of sound enve- should soon find that your
lopes proper. Changing work becomes a ti-ue joy and,
frequencies, volume and while you're about it, Equi-
iioiae enve- nox should

lopes will help
to produce
truly profes^
sional results.

There is
even some¬
thing on this
brilliant pro¬

gram for those

also he Ip you
to become
fully ac-
q u a i n t e d
with hea-
decimal
notation, as
w'cll as all
tlrose fright-

who have run out of fresh eniiigsound terms we looked

ideas, namely the Driver file at in our ACU music series,
on side B of the disc, which Learning to play music
contains Equinox sound rou- should, above all, be fun and
linesthat can be rejoined with widi thissuiXTb offeringfrom
your own octets. Ubisofl, that is exactly what

In short, Equinox is a pro- it is. You won’t believe what
gram that is literally packed you aJ'e capable of until you
with surprises, many of have tried outlhis beauty and
which will astound you when then, when you have, you

you come acmss them as you won’t believe your ears!

progress,

liiose of you out there wlu)

Jim Johnson

Royi'

W! Equirox

, ion , Ubisoft

Disc onl)^ £30.99

89 %

95 %

(lfU(

fyilLIT!

mici

]

I I

I remember, not too long
ago, when my dear old
ed asked me if there was
anything decent on the mar¬
ket, resembling a steering
wheel, to help out racing
lovers in a fix.

Call itfate, destiny, orwhat
you will but, as 1 was pon¬
dering this vei 7 question and
looking through my archives,
what should come through
my door but Merthyr Tydfil
based Ktron’s latest test
model of the Stealth games
controller.

Ck, so at a first glance it
doesn’t look like a conven¬
tional steering wheel but, let
me assure you, you won’t get
much closer in terms of
playing power than this novel
device.

Of course, ergonomics
(don’t you just love that
word?), played a major role
in the construction of the
Stealth and, as soon as you
get your hands on this little
beast, you’ll understand how
thumbache could well be a
thing of the past.

You can’t really call the
Stealth a joy stick, as it doesn’t
have one, but that doesn’t

Jim Johnson investfgates the Ktron Stealth,
the latest in hi-tech games control gadgetry.

stop this gadget from being
one of the most comfortable
and user friendly controllers
on the market.

So how do you control it?
Simple. Depending on

whether you buy the left-or
righthanded version, one of
the hand levers is designed
to pivot, multi-directional
power at the flick of your
wrist.

Thetwo-handed grips give
extremely accurate firepower
and, with the two fire buttons
placed within easy reach on
the underside of the unit,
blasting or racing for ex¬
tended periods has never
been more comfortable.

A little stiff to start with,
you might like to wear this
device in on the race games
before using it for blasts re¬
quiring more subtle
movements though, as with
most joysticks, the durable
microswitchesdo soften with
use, allowing for excellent
control on all manner of
games.

Obviously, the Stealth is
designed with aircraft simu¬
lators in mind, but that
shouldn’t stop you trying it
out on all of your fave games.

You certainly won’t be disap¬
pointed.

If I have one small criti¬
cism to make about the
controller, it is that the hand
grips, or the unit as a whole,
is a tad on the small side.
However, seeing that I have
the size of hands more usu¬

ally seen on a blacksmith,
and that most joysticks are
designed with the younger
market in mind, this should
not cau se too much of a prob¬
lem for the majority of users.

All in all, the Stealth is a'
novel approach to games
controlling and it is certainly
more than just a gadget,
which seems to be the in
thing at the moment Looking
like a yoke, the Stealth is an
extremely powerful piece of
equipment to have on your
side during any battle.

No longer do you have to

worry about stickers not
sticking onto desktops, or
grappling to reach the fire
buttons during crucial mo¬
ments of the chase. For all
round durability, firepower
and user friendliness, you'll
need to go a long way to bet¬
ter the Stealth and, at an
incredible £14,99, the price
will take some beating as
well.

Take one out for a test drive
when you next visit your
computer shop and get to
grips with the excellent
Stealth as soon as you can.

Jim Jolmson

The Stealth
Cost £14,99
Ktron
Units

Berlie Centre
Merthyr lydfil
South Wales
CF48 2SR
Tel: 0685 722509
ACU Rating 92%

PBgsdS

AmstfBd User March 1992

fight ahead of you.

Superb Ninja action to set
your pulse rate racing, and
an excellent offering to keep
you busy for hours.

If you didn't get Indiana
Jones and the Last Crusade
die first lame around, then
make sure you don't miss it
this time. Superb adventure
from the very first drop into
the: caverns, on the hunt for
the Cross of Gomado, to the
final fight for the Holy Grail,
this is one blast to keep you
on the edge of your seats for
a long, longtime.

Use your whip wisely and

ivr-.'T

'il*

iJL'

be sure to checkypur ammo
supplies in this superb offer¬
ing.

Last on tjie list, is the epic
Strider 2 outing, which sees
you setting out oh a desper¬
ate bid to rescue an important
world leader from the
clutches of the dastardly al¬
iens.

Setting down from the
helicopter, you must use aD
of your skills and agility to
avoid the alien lasers, before
moving on to take on the big
boys at the end Of each ac¬
tion-packed level.

identy to see and do, and

^ eroes was a first rate
success fo r Domark,
so you can’t really
blame them for wanting an-
otlier bite at the cherry with
this setiuel compilation. Be*
sides, who cares when the
sequel is as good as this little
beauty, containing, as it does,
four best-selling games in
their own right.

Hrst up on this epic cot
lection, is the Bond offering.
The Spy Who Loved Me.
Remember when this one
first c^e out? This is one of
those games that seems like
a bit of a doddle first time
around but, what you don’t
realise is that, after you’ve
completed it, youYe hooked
and you want to do it all
over again to top your high
score.

Featuring some great car
and boat chases, as well as
somepu;ss!lingcodecmckmg,
this one will sobn become a
firm favourite.

Next on the list is the

usirtc

more blast action than you
can handle, dare you miss it?

Each of these blasts is
brilliantly put together, fear
taring superb graphics md
realistic sound effects. Basi¬
cally, if you like your action
rough and tough, then you’ll
have to go a long way to beat
this collection. Grease up
your trigger finger, but don’t
forget to keep your brain in
gear as well, as you 11 need
both to survive these awe¬
some outings,

Jim Johnson

cracking Nihj a 2 blast, which
sees you whizzing tluough
time to modem day Manhat¬
tan, to take on your arch
enemy Shogun Kunitoki.
Finding your way through
the labyrinthine levels is
problem enough, but don't
forget the evil henchmen
along the way. Chop them
down first, otherwise you'll
find yourself on tire band¬
stand again, with the whole

: ; lii

Superheroes

Domark

89%

87%

Disc £19.9?

mmi

Amtrad ttser March 1332

Page 37

HARIIDRRIN*

Time to get your 3D specs on
folks, as this best-selling,
rough and tumble race blast
hits the budget scene. If
you Ve played this one before,
then you certainly wonh
foi^etthe superb 3D graphics
and the totally brilliani instant
slo-mo replay option.

In fact, I liked it so much, I
used to attempt the worst
possible blow outs, j u st to get
it replayed in glorious slow
motion!

Included in this epic outi ng
are the two tracks, speed and
stunt, both of which arc
designed to test different
driving skills.

If speed isyourgame, then
opt for the first and boot your
car up to blistering speeds to
beat the fastest lap scores.
For best results, try it in
automatic transmission first,
to allow you to get a feel for
the car, then do the gear
changes yourself for some
heavy duty action.

If thrills and spillsaremon?
your scent, then the Stunt
Track is going to blow your
mind. The three main Stunts
featured, are the Bridge
Jump, the Loop-the-Loop and
the Bank. Tmuig is essential
on all of these obstacles, as is
speed.

For example, speeds in
excess of 60mph will send
you spinning off the track at
the bridge, and into a
spectacular crash. However,
if you are too slow, you won't
make it across. You have been
warned.

Again, try it first in

Page 3S

automatic, then get to the
gears for some tight
cornering action. Do what
you must to save time and
avoid traffic ahead to get tlie
high scores. If you do well
enough, you may even qualify
for a head to head with the
awesome computer car, the
Phantom Photon.

Crashing means instant
disqualification, so you'll
have to be very, very good to
succeed. However, don't
worry too much if you don’t,
as watching your spin-offs in
slow-mo replay can be just as
rewarding as winning the
laurels. Great graphics, and
a belte r of a game. Don’t miss
it.

Here’s aiiotlier real classic
that sho uld h ave you drooling
with delightthe momentyou
slap it into your datacorder.
You should all know the
storyline by now but, if you
have had your head in a sack
for the last couple of years,
you basically play the role of
Patrolman Muri^hy, gunned
down in Detroit and

has been attacked. Using
your robot controlled
eyesight, you must attempt
to shoot the villain without
hitting the hostage.
Remember what happened
in the film here? Nasty!

Level three takes you on
your second patrol, before
the fourth outing sees you
trying to piece together
phototit parts to match the
original photograph of your
‘killer’.

Succeed, and you will now
knowliis name. On level five,
you receive information
which leads you to the rest of
the heavily armed gang in
the drugs factory.

After this blistering shoot¬
out, you confront Dick Jones
at OCP, but are prevented
from killing him due to
Directive 4, which prevents
you from acting against a
senior officer of the company.

As a result, you are
disarmed and must battle it
out barehand with the
awesome ED209 robot.
Level’s seven and eight see
you on the run from the
criminals, before the final

showdown at OCP sees the
sacking of Jones and your
chance to pick him off. Be
careful though, as he has the
President hostage and,
killing him would not look
too good on your record.

There you have it, a
brilliantly conceived game,
bursting with action and
featuring some stunning
graphics and sound effect. If
you like your action tough,
then this has to be the game
for you.

»vj ■ "-A

- m' <1

A rSight.y I'iid biisement this

' lere is ?tilt more than
^ .Ion zo going on with.

transformed into a titanium
coated killing machine to
patrol the streets.

Set over nine superbly
crafted levels, your task is to
piece together die fragments
of your shattered memory
and discover the truth about
your near fatal gunshot
wounds. To start off, your
first duty is a regular patrol
in Detroit, where nasty
villains will try to thwart your
every move.

Get through this little
encounter, and your next task
is to intervene as a woman

SAMYTS XMAS CAPER
This little blast was o riginally
released last year but, if you
missed it and you are already
lamenting the passing of yet
anotherChristmas, then pick
up thisgemand Til guarantee
your spirits will rise
immediately.

What’s the plot? Well, the
dastardly, and extremely
mischievous, pixies, have
spiked Santa’s pudding,
laying him out and leaving
him unable to deliver all of
the presents to the children
around the world.

This, of course, is where
you come in, taking up
Santa’s reigns and guiding
his sleigh through the night
skies to keep Santa alive in
the hearts of the little
children.

Set over tliree excellent
levels, your first job is to get
the sleigh up into the sky and
get out of Lapland, However,
the naughty pixies are
determined to stop you and
have gathered a host of spare
presents to throw at you and
slow you down.

Amstrad User Marcft 1992

All the while, you must
collect the Santa faces and
wine glasses as you fly, as
you must use these later as
the presents.

Get past the first pixie
assault, and you findyourself
in the Atlantic Ocean,
desperately dodging radar
waves. You see, the American
scientists do not believe in
you, and are searching the
skies to track down the
person responsible for the
hoax.

K the radar beams catch
you, then everybody will
believe that Santa is a fake,
so be careful. Again, you must
collect the Santa faces and
wine glasses as you go, so
keep up your concentration,
or it could be all over.

If you have managed to
make it this far, then you can
noTv mo ve on to the real th ing,
delivering the pressiesi
Flying over the rooftops, you
must avoid the chimneys,
aerials and last year’s
presents, to make perfect
drops, by pressing the Space
Bar.

Here again, the pixies are
out to get you, by throwing
flying presents at you. To
blow them up, you can use
spare presents your own

sack, so get blasting. Watch
out for the plum puddings,
though, as they will take a
couple of hits before
disintegrating.

In all, you have six lives
and,youjusthaveto succeed,
otherwise the pixies will be
free to create mischief all the
year round. Do your best and
keep Santa alive.

Featuring some smart
graphics, Santa’sXmas Caper
is an absolute joy to play and
should keep you glued to
your screen fora far old time,
as you battle for Santa's
reputation. Well done,
Zeppelin, this looks like one
of those blasts you can keep
re-leasing every year for the
Festive Season, with great
success,

EDD TiiE DDCK
Here we go witli yet another
full price success story being
converted onto the pocket
money shell Edd the duck is
on a meteoric rise to stard om
and your task is to keep it
that way, despite the constant
meddling of Wilson the
butler and the ugly
Arglefrags.

Taking in three separate
departments within the BBC
TV building, you must keep

little Edd safe from barm to
reach ultimate stardom, but
it ain’t going to be easy.

To help you on your
upward route through the
bowels of the BBC, the clever
Special Effects boffins have
developed a special snowball
shooter, which Edd can use
to freeze his opponents for
short periods of time. Use it
wisely to lay out the bad guys
and get set to move very
quickly if you want to
succeed.

Fighdngyourway through
the adverse weather
conditions on level one, your
task is to collect 20 stars,
allowing you to progress. Gel
through that little hurricane,
and your next stop is the zany
atmosphere of the special
effects centre.

Anything can happen here,
and it usually does so, if you
want to keep climbing, keep
throwing the snowballs and
make sure you grab the stars
as fast as you can.

If you manage to make it to
the Children’s TV episode,
you're doing exceedingly
well. However, there is no
time to get complacent as
Wilson plays his trump card,
in a desperate attemptto stop
you.

Remember, you only have
four takes to complete the
whole mission, the On Air
lights are flashing and the
audience is buzzing with
anticipation. This is your big
chance to take Edd to the
top, so you'd better not blow
it!

Jam-packed with

excitement, Edd the Duck is,
above all, fun to play . It may
not be the most riveting
platform jumper you have
tried but, forthe budget price,
it is good, clean fun and well
worth adding to your
collection,

SUGHTL^ MAGIC
Remember this one? Well,
you may not, as this is the

first time ithas been released
as a title in its own right.
Making if s debut appearance
on the Code Master’s
Cartoon Collection last
month, this is one little gem
that certainly deserves an
independent outing.

Basically, you are Bigwiz
the wizard's apprentice and,
due to your almost total lack
of magical skills, you have
totally obliterated Bigwiz’s
laboratoiy and sent the Wiz
liimself packing through a
warp.

Oooer! What now! Well,
using your semi-perfected
skills, you must travel
through the various levels
collecting up Bigwiz’s
equipment, spells and books,
transporting tltem back to the
laboratory before the bad
guys can get to use them.

Of course, your magic will
help you out, but don't rely
on it because, after all, you
are only slight magic and,
just when you thought you
were getting on top of things,
your spells might just go awry
and leave you high and dry in
hostile teiritoiy.

This one is great fun to
play, featuring all of the usual
Code Master' style and great
graphics. There is certainly
plenty to see and do as you
pick your way through the
strange lands.

If you like your adventure
tongue in cheek, then this is
the offering for you.
Brilliantly crafted and
guaranteed to hook you
faster than you can say
Abracadabra!

Jim Jahnso!'

Hard Drivin’

Hit Squad

£3.99

88%

Robocop

Hit Squad

£3.99

90%

Santa's Xmas Caper

Zeppelin

£3.99

82%

Edd the Duck

Impulze

£3.99

78%

Slightly Magic

Code Masters

£2,99

86%

Psge 39

gave the Airatrad PC53B6®all the best features you need
for serious business use and great games entertainment.

Then we gave it features which were unheard of.

16MHz SPEED-NO COMPROMISE

We built the PC5286® around an ultra-fast IbMHz 286
processor, so you’ll have all the speed you need to get through the
business of the day with enough time to play around.

A massive 1 megabyte of RAM, 40 megabyte hard drive and
1,44 megabyte 3.5" floppy disk drive combine to make best use of
this computing power - the PC5286® is buUt to perform.

SUPERB VGA GRAPHICS

As you'd expect, the PC5286 ® also offers state-of-the-art
graphics with a 14" high quality VGA monitor wliich will displ^ up
to 256 colours from a palette of over a quartet of a million.

Thfrific for business applications, but all that colour is wasted
on games if you've got no sound capability

TWIN SPEAKER SOUND

So w'e gave it a sound system that makes it unique,

Its fully Ad-Lib’ compatible soundcard with twin external
speakers gets you closer to the action, bringing a whole new
dimension of enjoyment to your PC.

THE UMPLETE SYSTEM

The Amstrad PC5286®Fbmi]y Pack comes with everything
you need for both work and play Microsoft Works, the market-
leading integrated business software package, is included
together with three of today’s latest and greatest games. Also
supplied are a fully featured keyboard, mouse, MS DOS 3.3©and
a precision analogue joystick, Tb top it all, for ease of use,
the PC5286© comes with ‘Counterpoint’ the
outstanding user-friendly graphical interface. >fcn3HjnwiA»

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Available from selected brandies of Allders, Dixons, John Lewis, Rumbelews, Rymans, Wildings and over 3,000 registered Amstrad dealers,

THE SHAPE
ROUTINE

Glynne Davies helps put the design factor
firmly in its place as EasyDraw continues.

I t is often a requirement that a cer¬
tain shape is repeated to form a
pattern or that certain shapes can
be called up when needed. This routine
allows you to create a shape and draw
that shape as many limes as you want at
different magnifications. The informa¬
tion for the shape is stored within a
string. Relative drawing methods are
used to place the shape on the screen,
this means that a line is drawn using
the previous graphics cursor position
as the position 0,0. i.e. 20 pixels right
of the last position and 15 pixels down.
By using relative drawing methods a
simple magnification factor can be in¬
troduced allowing the drawing of
the shape in many sizes. When you
have designed a number of shapes you
can save them to disc or tape to be
loaded at a later date. Each file you
produce can have up to 99 shapes and
there is no limit to how many files you
can produce. Hiis system is useful for
creating your own character sets of
symbols or for simply repeating a sh ape
with different sizes.

Amtrad User March 1932

Considerations

1) The Shape must he easy to create.

2) A position move must be available
during the creation of the shape to
develop shapes which are not continu¬
ous lines.

3) The standard Easydraw2 method of
line drawing, moving, fixing and setting
the jump size will he used.

4) The shapes will need a Save and
Load routine.

5) Relative methods will be used as
these can easily be times by a number
to create a magnification of the shape.

6) A filename extension will be added
to the filename to help identify a shapes
file CSHP).

7) Room for 100 shapes will be re¬
served, thiscan be reduced if additional
memory is required. (This could use
up 100 times 356=25600 bytes of
memory if all strings are full, this is
unlikely but if it happened the program
would run out of memory).

How to use this routine

Press S for theShape and enter a shape

number, the number is a reference by
which the shape will be known. To start
the shape memory press E for Elastic
banding, this start position is stored in
a string. Each time you press F to Fix
the line, the co-ordinates will be stored
in the string. You can move without
drawing a line by pressing M for Move,
the new co-ordinates are only stored in
the string when you press E again.
When the shape is complete press the
Enter key.

To see the result of your design,
place the cursor at a start position and
press Z for Zoom, enter the shape
number and the magnification and your
shape will be drawn as you created it.
For the magnification factor I have used
integer numbers so a value of 10 mag¬
nification is the original size, magnifi^-
cation 1 would be a tenth original size
and 60 would be eight times the origi¬
nal size.

Variables

shapes$(n) The shape memory
string

high shape The highest number
shape in memory
shp The chosen shape

newshape$ A replacement
string for the
shape$(n)

pointer Position in the

string of the first
:(bar)

drwmov Draw or Move

drwmov=l Draw
drwinov=0 Move
xold Co-ordinates of

the last position
(horizontal)

yold Co-ordinates of

the last position
(vertical)

xnew New horizontal

co-ordinate

ynew New vertical

co-ordinate

A look at the listing

Line 51 Dimension the shape

memory to 100 strings.

line 350 Press S to start Shape build.

Line 360 Press Z to Zoom shape,

place shape at cursor.

Une 370 CTRL+K to Save (KEEP)
shapes on disc or tape.

Line 360 CTRL+A to load (ADD)
shapes from disc or tape.

Une 6090-8110 E for Elastic band, F
to Fix, M to Move and J to change
Jump size.

Line 6180-8200 Replace the spaces in
the memory string with : (bars) as
spaces can be lost when saving.

Line 8240 Check length of memory
string.

Page 41

line 82508270 Update memory
siring with two co-ordinates and draw
or move variable.

Line 8380-8600 Extract the x and y
and draw or move variables from the
string newstring$, by searching lor
the bar (:).

tine 8580 Draw a line or move
relative to the last point, {DRAWR or
MOVER)

line 24700-24760 Save Shapes
routine.

Une 24820-24860 Load Shapes
routine.

The listing (Ensure EASY5 is in
memory before typing in the listing
below)

51 DIM shape$ (99)

350 IF INKEY(60)=0THEN GOSUB
llOOO:mde$-"SHAPE":GOSUB
12000:GOSUB 8000:GOSUB
11000:GOSUB 12000
360 IF INKEY (71)=0 AND
highshape>0 THEN GOSUB
11000:mde$="ZOOM":GOSUB
12000:GOSUB 8290:GOSUB
5070:mde$-''MOVE'':GOSUB 12000
370 IF INKEY(37)-128AND
highshape>0 THEN GOSUB
24000:GOSUB 24700:GOSUB
24100:REM Press CfRL+K to Keep
shapes

380 IF INKEY(69)-128THEN
GOSUB 24000:GOSUB
24800:GOSUB 2410O:REM Press
CTRL+A to Add saved shapes
8000 REM shape memory
8010 shp=0; WHILE shp-0
8020 xx=12: f =2:ask$="Enter the
shape number (up to
"+STT?S (high shape) +"
chosen) i':GOSUB
3nOO:shp=VAIians$)

8030 info$=''E Elastic F Fix M Move J
Jump and Enter to finish"

8040 LOCATE 124:PRTNT 'E elastic
band F to Fix M to Move Enter when
Page 42

finished"

8050 VITlND

8060 IF shp>high shape THEN
highshape=shp

8070 shapemem=0:shape$(shp)-''"
8080 WHILE shapemefn=0
8090 IF INKEY(53)=0 AND ele-1
THEN a-xf:b-vf:set=0:GOSUB
4500:GOSUB

8240:REM Press F to Fix and set up
shapes with new co-ordinates
8100 IF INKEY(38)-0 THEN GOSUB
11000:GOSUB 12000: eIe-0:REM
Press M to move

8110 IF INKEY(58)=0 THEN GOSUB
11000:set-0:GOSUB
8240:mde$-"ELASnC":ele-l :GOSUB
12(K)0:REM Press E to switch on
Elastic band F to Fix a line
8120 IF INKEY(45)-0 THEN
str=0:xx=12:ask$="PLEASE ENTER
THE JUMP LENGTH":! =3:GOSUB
3000:jump=VAl.(ans$):GOSUB
12000:REM Press J to change jump
si

8130 GOSUB 5000:REM Cursor
movement

8140 IF ele-1 THEN GOSUB 6000
8150 IF INKEY(18)=0 THEN
shapemem=l:REM Shape complete
8160 WEND
8170 shapemem=0

8180 FOR n=l TO LEN (shape$(shp))
8190 IF MID$ (shape (shp),n,l)-""
THEN newsbape$=newshapeS+"; "
:ELSE newshape$-newshapeS+MID
$(shape$(shp),n,l)

8200 NEXT

8210 shape$(shp)=newshape$Tnew
shape$=''"

8220 info$=''"

8230 RETURN

8240 IF LEN(shapeS(shp))>240
THEN shapemem=l:PRIN'r
CHR$(7):RETURN

8250 first$=STR$(x):second$=STRS(y)
8260 IF ele=l THEN lin=l ELSE lin=0
8270 shapeS(shp)=shapeS(shp)+ STR
$ (lin) -i-first$+second$

8280 RETIURN

8290 REM Redraw shape

8300 IF highshape=0 THEN

RETURN

8310 shp=0

8320 WHILE LEN(shape$(shp))<l
8330 xx=12; l=2:ask$"Hease Enter
the shape number (up to
''+STR$(highshape)+"
defined) ":GOSUB
3000-shp=VAL(ans$)

8340 WEND

8350 xx=12:1=3 :ask$''Please Enter
the Magnification'bGOSUB
3000:mag=VAL(ans$)

8360 mag=mag/IO:REM Reduce
magnification 10 is normal 1 is one
tenth and 99 is 9,9 times
8370 GOSUB 5070:MOVER 0,-10

8380 newshape$=shape$(shp)

8390 pomter=INSTR(newshape$,";")
8400 newshape$=RIGHTS(newshape
$,LEN (newshapeS)-pointer)

8410 drwinov=VAL(newshape$)

8420 pointer=INSTR(ne wshapeS," |'')
8430 newshape$=

RlGH'rS(newshape$,LEN (newshape
$)-pointer)

8440 xold-VAL(newshape$)

8450 pointer=INSTR(newshape$,"|")
8460 newshape$=RIGHTS
(newshapeS. LEN(newshape$)-
pointer)

8470 yold=VAL(newshapeS)

8480 WHILE
INSTR(newshape$," I") >0
8490 po[nter=lNSTR(newshape$,''j")
85(X) newshape$=RIGHT$
(newshapeS. LEN(newshapeS)-
pointer)

8510 drwmov=VAL(newshape8)

8520 pointer=INSTR(newshape$," |")
8530 newshape$=RIGHT$ (newshape
$,LEN (newshapeS)-pointer)

8540 xnew=VAL(newahapeS)

8550 pointer=INSTR(newshape$," |")
8560 newshapeS^RKSHl^ (newshape
$,LEN (newshapeS)-pointer)

8570 ynew=VAL(newshapeS)

8580 IF drwmov=l THEN DRAl'tH
mag* (xnew-xold) ,mag* (ynew-
yold),l:ELSE MOVER mag*(xnew-
xold) ,mag* (ynew-yold)

8590 xold=xnew:yold=ynew
8600 WEND
8610 RETURN

13035 IF LEN(info$)>0 AND d=0
THEN IX)CATE 12.1:PRINT infoS
24700 xx-12;i=8:str=0:askS=’'Name
the shapes or Enter to
Return";GOSUB3000
24710 IF ansS="" THEN RETURN
24720 OPENOUT ans$+''.shp":REM
open a channel to the disc or tape
24730 PRINT # 9,highshape:REM
Place the number of shapes on disc
or tape

IGHI

24740 FOR n=l TO hiKhshape
24750 PRINT #9,shapeS(n)

24760 NEXT
24780 CLOSEOUT
24790 Rt^a’RN

24800 xx=12: t=8: str=0:ask$=" E nter
the shape name or Enter to
Retum'':GOSUB 3000
24810 IF ans$=" THEN I^ETURN
24820 OPENIN ansS+"^shp":REM
Open a channel from tape or disc
24830 INPUT # 9,high shape :REM
Find out how many pieces of data are
available

24835 FOR n=l TO highshape
24840 INPUT# 93hapeS(n)

24850 NEXT
24860 CT-OSEIN
24870 RETURN

j\fter you have typed in this month's
routine together with EASY5 save the

listing as EASY6 and run the program,
develop some shapes by pressing S
and entering a number and then Zoom
them into place using Z and the shape
number. To create shapes successfully
develop a grid as a guide before at¬
tempting to design a shape, if you are
making a new character set create a
box as one shape and use this to keep
all the other characters the same size.
Have fijn.

Next month is the last in the present
series. IPte only vital routine missing is
a printout routine which is next month’s
theme together with a complete l isting
to date for those of you who have mi ssed
a month. You can now draw your mas^
terpieces and after next month print
them out. Here to finish off this month
is a quick reference chart of all the
commands of Easydraw2.

'Sihon.

movj

drawing?^f^

Amstrsfl User Maivh 1992

Adventures abound in this month’s public

domain round-up, along with some excellent
utilities to fill out the gaps in your own
software collections.

W elcome once again to our
monthly round-up of all the
news worth knowing of what
has been happening within the PD

Page 44

Scene* It has been a bit quiet this month
on the new program front, due no doubt
to the librarians still trying to catch up
\^th orders after the post-Christmas

rush^ but a couple of our staunch
supporters still managed to keep me
supplied with news for you all

Debby Howard of Adventure PD has
been at it again. She just keeps getting
bigger. Before she belts me with her
handbag, I had better explain that I'm
talking about her library and of her
adding yet more adventure discs to her
already considerable collection. The
latest discs to arrive at Chez Sunny side
are AMS 13 &: 14, They both run under
Amsdos (Basic) and include the
follo\^dng:

13. ) Caves 90, Once A Kn^ht, Cave
Capers 7 3D Construction Kit Demo,

14. ) Get Me To The Church On Time,
Sound Seeker, 7he Terror of Innsmoutk
7 Mansion.

As per usual, you can obtain each
selection on one side of a disc for one
pound plusyour own discand astamped
addressed jiffy bag. Debby has also
asked me to mention her full solution
service for most of the commercial
adventures - but as these aren’t public
domain. I’m not going to!

Data PD, run byTony Kingsmill have
sent me a vety interesting assortment
of programs. 1 must mention that what
follows here is not a specific listing of
any particular disc but just a few
examples of how varied a selection of
differenttypesofprogramscan be found
by browsing through Data's stock list.
Take the BBC Emulator for instance.
This is not exactly a fully fledged
emulator by any means, but it
transformed my CPC sufficiently for it
to bring back memories of a time gone
by, when I spent a few hours every
week at evening classes learning BASIC
programming on the BBC. Recognised
commands are CHAIN, CIS and *CAT
(and don’t forget the asterisk!), plus
AMSDOS to return to - guess what?
Tony's ideabehind producing this bare
bones emulation is to allow other users
to add further commands and grad
ually build it up to a fully working
emulator. It is a nice idea and I hope it
catches on.

Do you need a spreadsheet to keep
tabs of your day-to-day finances but do
not wish to pay for a full-price
commercial product? Then Data PD
have the answer in the shape of Home
Accountant. This program only takes
up7Kon the discbut it seems adequate
at doing the job. How about letting
your computer teach you the correct
finger posifions for all the chords and
notes on a guitar? To become the next
Eric Clapton (not guaranteed) you can
try a program called Guitar. Also, if
music is your thing, then check out
Drumkit as well. I.ayout, or to give it its
full title. Computer Aided Layout, is an

Amtrait User March 1992

interesting program to aid you in
planning the layout of a room, for
instance. You can define the sizes say,
of pieces of furniture, place them in the
predefined room and then move them
about on the screen until the ideal layout
is achieved. This is a lot easier than
physically humping the furniture
around until it all fitsl

Telcost is a telephone call cost
calculator with a nice big screen design
that leaves you in no doubt as to how
much that call is costing you* If you
would like a visual reminder to help
you achieve smaller telephone bills,
then this is the one. Have you ever
needed a program to help you design
printed circuit boards? No, neither have
I but PCB Designer can do this, it is
available from Data PD and to me this
IS the type of program that is the epitome
of why the public domain exists. The
programmer obviously wrote the
program because he did need such a
utility and being proud of his efforts but
realising that it had about as much
chance of commercial success as a
snowflake in hell decided to donate it
to the public domain instead, in the
hope that there would be somebody
else out there who could also make use
of it or even improve it by adding extra
features. A lot of the ‘established’ PD
titles have grown over the years in
exactly this way*

For a full list of all the programs
available (now over 50 discs), send an
SAE to Data PD or better still, send a
blank disc and SAE and Tony will put
on it for you, not only his full stock list
but also a free demo and a free game, 2
Player Tetris. One final note. Data PD
(via David Nagle) are no longer able to

afford PD cassettes, so it's disc only
from now on.

And now, a little snippet for all the
Modem usei^ who read these pages.
Have you ever logged-on, dashed along
to the file area, downloaded some juicy
looking files and then found to your
horror that you could not use the files
until they had been unpacked? Even
worse, you discovered that the files
had been packed with an archiver such
as IH which i s not generally available
on the CPC? Wellfretno more, because
there is a new u npacker av^lable for all
CPC and PCW owners called LHZ-
CPM.LZH. That snappy title does in
fact hide a very useful program for un-
crunching all files that have a 17M
extent. It is very easy to use, it works
and you can download it from Preston-
Ros BBS, to name but one*

As usual, ril finish off with a Kst of the
libraries who have contacted me and
sent in examples of their programs
and/or a catalogue. If you are a public
domain library or you wish to
recommend one or even a particular
program, then I’ll be delighted to hear
from you. You can write to me at PD
Scene, C/o Amstrad Computer User,
Sunnyside Cottage, Carluddon, St
Austell, Cornwall PL26 3TV.

The above librarians will be happy to
send you a stock list but please include
a stamped self-addressed envelope.

For those of you with a Modem, you
can try down-loading some free public
domain programs from the CPC file
areas on:

Preston Ros0772 652212 (24 hours)

Arcade Fantasy 0533 376056 (8pm-
8am)

Have fun, Bob Adams.

3D PD LIBRARY
44 Echllne Grove,

South ()ucensfeiTy,
WestD)thianEH309RU*

ADVTNTIJRF PD.

10 Overton Road,

Abbey Wood,

Djiidon SE2 9SD.

DAiri’SMA PD LIBRARY,
c /0 Adam Shade,

47 Kidd Place,
j Charlton,

London SF7 31 IF*

DATA PD LIBRARY.

202 Park Street l*ane,

Park Street,

St Albans,

Herts AI.2 2AQ.

EGEinON PD IJBRAI^Y Ghpe)
I 7 linden Close,

Stafford,

Staffs STi 7 trni*

PENGUIN SemVARF
Ruxley House,

28 Mount Hermon Road,
Woking,

Surrey GU22 7UIL

ROBOT PI) LIBRARY
2 Trent iioad,

Oakham,

RiiaaiKlIElSfiHF*

SOUNDS LIKE PD
6 Kcyboity' Park,

Decoy,

Newloii Abbot,

South Devon IBZ

Amstrad User March 1992

Page 45

ITECliil

THE TECHIE BIT

More machine code madness courtesy of the

Doc

We kick off this month by diving
straight into a letter from John Arundel
of Norwich:

7 own a 6I2S+ which I enjoy
programming immemeiy. Having
mastered BASIC some time ago / have
now progressed onto learning machine
code a nd wou Id like to use it for a project
lam currently working on.

The project is a simple educational
game but I want the user to control it by
moving an arrow around the screen and
selecting one of several quite large icons.
/ ha ve written th e progra min BASIC h ut
the routine that moves the arrow is slow
and jerky and spoils the effect of the high
quality graphics which took a lot of time
to design. Hte smoothest movement /
achieved using TAG and FRAME
but this is painjktly slow. Can machine
code provide an alternative which is
both quick & Smooth, yet easy to use from
within BASIC? Flease help as 1 am
hoping to use the finished program for
my GCSE Computer Science project.

I’m only too pleased to help John!
The assembly listing at the end will
provide you with the smoothest,
quickest arrow you’re every likely to
see:

Perhaps T should point out that the
hash symbols (#) contained in the
listing signify hex numbers and may
need changing to ampersands (&)
depending on your assembler (the ACU
assembler uses &), Once you’ve
assembled it, type CALL &7000 to
initialise the routine - from now on, all
you need to do is issue the RSX
command lARROW. An arrow should
appear in the middle of the screen and
can be moved with the cursor keys.
The spacebar is used to ‘select’
something and willretum you to BASIC
when pressed, 1 ARROW will allow the
arrow' to be moved once more,
IMPORTANT NOTE - llie routine is
only designed to be used in mode 1
(the mode requested by John).

Here are some usefuladdresses to help
you interact with the routine:

&719E - Xpos = X position of arrow
&719F - Ypos = Y position of arrow
&71A0 - KeyUp = Number of key used
to move arrow up

&71A1 ~ Keydown = Number of dow'n
key

&:71A2 - KeyLeft = Number of left key
&71A3 - KeyRighl Number of right

Page 46

key

&71A4 - KeySelect = Number of key
used to select something

By PQKEing values into addresses
&71A1-&7 l 44 you can alter the keys
used to control the arrow. 'ITie first two
addresses are even more useful as they
allow the BASIC program to determine
the position of the arrow when the
select ki?y has been pressed e.g.:

10 lARROW
20X=PEEK (&719E)

30Y=PEEK (&719F)

40 LOCATE ld:PRINTX,Y
50 GOTO 10

The two cchordinates have their origin
in the bottom left comer of the screen
(0,0) with the top right comer having
co-ordinates (77,47), The x value
roughly corresponds to mode 1
character positions while the y value
corresponds to half mode 1 character
positions (4 pixels).

I think th at’s everything. I hope other
readers find a use for this routine in
their own programs, it really is worth
trying. If you wish to use the ACU
assembler to assemble the listing then
simply start each line with a line number
and an apostrophe, remembering to
insert a [ symbol on the line before the
ORG statement.

Meanwhile, if you think a well placed
machine code routine or two could
dramatically iraproveyour BASIC pride
and joy then why not write in.
Correspondence of any kind Is always
welcome.

Hex Education - part 6
Having taken a minor detour last issue
to take in the delights of ACU’s new
assembler, we continue this time
around on the road to machine code
fuMIment Last month’s ‘hex education’
contained a couple of teeny errors. As
many of you have probably already
noticed, the line numbers in the first
listing got a bit mixed up. l*hey should
go from 10 to 180 in increments of 10,
with lines 20-130 being assembly
instrnctions and line 140-180 being
BASIC. The good news is that these
errors have been fixed on the
instruction sheet which conies with
the assembler disk. Sorry for any
inconvenience!

10 ’ [

20 ’ ORG &7000

30’LDA,1
40 ’ LD B,2
50'ADDA.B
60’Rpn'

Assemble tlie above program (load the
assembler, type in the listing, execute
the command lASM) and see if you can
^less what it does. Bear in mind that
lines 10 and 20 are there for the benefit
of the assembler and that line 60 returns
control to BASIC when the program
has finished, To run it (once assembled)
type CALL &7000. Register A (the
accumulator) is loaded with 1, register
B with 2, and the two numbers added,
with the result being stored in the
accumulator. The only snag is that we
can’t directly see the contents of
registers from within BASIC in order
to confirm this. One way around the
problem is to add the following line to
the program:

55' U> (&7500)A

Assemble & run the program once
again, line 55 places the contents of
the accumulator into memory address
&75fl0 just before the program finishes.
Now all you have to do is type PRINT
PEEK (&7500> and lo and behold the
number 3 appears!

We can take this idea one step further
by altering the program fines:

30'LDA, (&7502)

35' W BA
40'LDA,(&7501)

The end result of this is that Aand B are
loaded with the values stored at
locations &750L &7502 respectively,
added, and the final total placed in
&7500 (as before). One interesting
point is the reason for using LD A,
(&7502) followed by LD BA instead of
a single, more logical LD B. (&7502),
ITie answer* quite simply, is that there

Antstrad User March 1992

isn't any such instruction! Many
operations can only be performed with
the accumulator, so you can begin tx>
see why this register is in such demand.
Anyw'ay, back to the plot.

Assemble the program but before
executing it, POI^ some values into
locations &:7501 and &7502 e.g. POKE
&7501,10:POKE &7502,20, Now type
CALL&7000as usual andPRINTPEEK
{&7500) to reveal the unsurprising
answer of 30. Exciting stuff Fm sure
you’ll agree. The largest answer the
accumulator can store (being only 8
bits in si!te) is 255, so vvhat happens if
you add 255 and 1? Well go on, try it!
'Fh e answer is zero because the register
(like all others) will simply cycle round.
Thus, 100+2{K) becomes 44. As we will
learn later on in this series, a special
flag is set whenever this type of event
occurs.

The bizarre program below pushes
lots of numbers around in a fairly
Illogical manner. Work through it and
tiy to determine what value will end up
in location &7500, Now type it in and
execute to test your answer.

10 M

20'ORG&7000
30'IDA,1
40' LD B,2
50' LD C,3
60 ’ LD D,4
70 "ADD A,B
80 ‘ ADD 5
90' SUB A,D
100 ’ LD B,D
110"LDDA
120" ADD B
130 ’ LD (&75aO),A
140' KEF

Constantly having to PEEK (&7500)
may get a little frustrating so why not
utilise the following little routine:

500' Print Accumulator:

SIO'LDBJOO

520' CALL pa l

530' LD B,10

540'CALL pal

550' LD B,1

560 ’ pal:

570' LD C,0
580' pa2:

590' SUB B
600'JRC,pa3
610'INC C
620’JRpa2
630 ■ pa3:

640' ADD A,B
650" PUSH AF
660"LDA,C
670'ADD 48
680’CALL &BB5A
690" POP AP'

Amstrad User March 1392

700'RET

What it does is to print the contents of
th e accumulator as a three digit deci mal
number. Don’t worry about
understanding how it works (it isn’t
particularly complicated), simply
realise that your program must place
whatever value you wish to display into
register A before it encounters the
routine. For example, add the following
line and execute the program. The
number 123 should be displayed on the
screen,

25'LD A, 123

The ADD instruction can be used to
the form the basis of a multiply routine.
Afterall, when we multiply 8 by 7 all we
really do is add 8 seven times (in fact
most humans speedup the process by
usinga lookup table which they formed
when a primary school). Below is the
complete listing of a simple multiply
routine, incorporating most of the
techniques we’ve learnt so far.

10 MODE 2
20 MEMORY &6FFF
30 INPUT “Enter two numbers to
multiply: "‘,X,Y
35 POKE &7500,X
40 POKE &7501,Y
50CAIU&7000
60 PRINT
70 GOTO 30
100 ' [

110'ORG&7000

120'LDA,(&7500)

130'LDCj\

140' LD A, (&7501)

150' LD BA
160' LD A.0
170' loop:

180'ADDA.C

190'DJNZ loop

5(X)' Print accumulator:

S insert liens 510-700 from previous
lishng]

To save space, the print accumulator
routine has not been listed - simply
add it on the end. Having typed it in,
assemble it using I ASM and then type
RUN , Tlie only instruction that we have
not yet discussed is that on line 190 -
DJNZ label - which deci'eases register
B by 1 and if the result is not zero,
program execution jumps to the label.
ITiis makes it extremely useful for
forming simple loops, B being used as
a loop counter. With this in mind, liy to
work out why the routine would take
longer to execute if given the numbers
5,50 as opposed to 50,5 - solution next
issue.

Just to clarify a point that may have

IDNTI

been causing some confusion, when a
number is enclosed in brackets itrefers
to a memory location. For example, LD
A100 loads the accumulator with the
value 100 whereas LD A (100) loads
the accumulator with the contents of
memory address 100.

If you feel like some more practice
then why not type in the assembly
listing given below. Next month well
lake a look at how to deal with numbers
bigger than 255. See you then.

THE ARROW

OPG

#7000

TEX : 1 i

HL t uork^space

BC, coitiiBand table

CALL

IBCDl

CALL

initialise

RET

[:ortitnan<l_table t

name_table

loop

naHie_table i

65,03,82,79,215

iuiork_space:

0,0,0,0

initialise:

HLr#E255

(jiew)(HL

(old),HL 1

A,37 1

{xposKA !

A,32 :■

(YPOeKA

RET

loop : t

CALL

#3019

XOR

{logic),A

HL,(old)

DE,Store

BC,#30A

CALL

HL,(new)

DE,store

BC,#30A

CALL

save

HL,(new)

DB,curaorb

BC,#30A

CALL

printb

A, #06

(logic),A

HL,(new)

DE,cursor

BC,#309

CALL

HL,(new)

(old),HL

left : LD

A,(key left)

CALL

#BB1E

Z,right

A,txpoE)

Z,up

DEC

(xpos),A

HL,(new) i

listing to be continued next month

Paged?

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ANATOMY
OF A GAME

According to him, his best known
work is probably Super Wonderboy
though he did admit to having
programmed 'Die Hunt For Red October.
Unlike the Soviet sub, he thinks about
3 copies escaped! In the meantime,
Karl was responsible foTR-jype and the
Images crew put out Nitifa Spirit^
Shadow Dancer and Flying Shark. Not
a bad track record.

When a game like G-Loc is to be
converted, a number of independent
software houses are asked by the
producers and licence holders - in this
case U S Gold * to put forward a‘proposal’
which consists of price; method of
approach and the name of the
programmer assigned. Apparently
Images beat-off stiff (and nobschstift)
opposition to win the contract. Rumour
has it that certain software houses
wanted to produce a ‘top down', 2D
conversion of agame whose immediate

F areham on the south coast, near
Portsmouth, is the kind of place
I could have spent a fortnight in,
one afternoon. Sleepy it isn’t -
‘comatose’ would be a better
description. My trusty steed had
delivered meihereonegrey,November
Monday. It was difficultto imagine this
essentially middle class and refined
little town as the home of all-action
computer games and a group of
boisterous young programmers called
Images.

Karl Jefferies, the dynamic 26 year
old boss of the company , had offered
ACU the opportunity fora rather special
insight into the creation of an equally
special game. perverse pleasure,
editor Chris Knight decided that my
anti-shoot *em up stance made me the
ideal person to investigate, I suppose
the theory was, that if I could be
converted, then Images conversion of
Sega’s would conquer the world!

Consisting of at least six freelance
programmers working in the office at
any one time. Images was started by
K^I and two other programmers just

IMAGES SOFTWARE. Just a few of the
team. Karl Jefferies (front right) and
Rob Hylands (centre).

Amtrad User March 19S2

over three years ago. An unspecified
number also work from home. Current
projects include, Sega’s Arcade Classics,
Taito’s Spaee Gun and Sega’s G~Loc.
These games are all being converted
for about half-a-dozen different
machines.

The average age for programmers i n
the company is between 22 and.25, but
D ainien Stones who is converting Space
Gun, byTaito, is only 18. He says the
Spectrum version isjust about finished
and the CPC version will be completed
by the time this is published. Having
had a sneak preview of this one, I can
tell you that the sprites are amazing
and the monsters ‘^cked’ - in both the
traditional and modem meaning of the
word!

Unfortunately, the upwardly mobile
Karl (don’t mention Mutant Monty)
was out wheeling and dealing with
Nintendo and tying-up a contract to
produce NES games, which was
finalised just before I left. Well done
Karl!

In consequence, I was delivered Into
the capable hands of ace programmer
and founder member, Rob Hylands,
who got his Job with Images by walking
into a J ob (Centre at precisely the right
time!

Rob is a very affeble, 30 year old
Hampshire-ite, whose continuoussmile
fightsa running battle with the bearded
shmbbery that threatens to conceal it!
Mostly, the smile wins - though 1 am
not sure he needed me as a millstone
around his neck for a whole day.

Images Software - ROB HYLANDS
programmer of G-Loc.

appeal lies in its 3D, ‘virtual reality’
effects. No contest really.

With the contract awarded to the
most suitable ‘house’, US Gold then
assign a producer (in this case, Steve
Fitton) who works closely with the
programmer in an attempt to produce
as good a conversion as possible.

Originally a Sega coin-op gajne, the
first task for a programmer is to get to
a G-Loc machine and start playing the
game. Rob had already seen a
demonstration video of the action and
eventually went into an arcade in
Southsea to try it *.. .so I’d know what
I was up against!’ He admits his first
reaction was, ‘Oh my God!*

At this early stage, Karl calls in a
team of graphic artists who begin
designing loading screens,
back^ounds and general graphics. Rob
starts work by looking at his standard
procedures so that he can modify and
speed them up to execute some of the
effects, techniques and characteristics
unique to the original. All this
preliminary worktakesatleasta month.

We break the game down through
the levels and find out exactly what

Page 43

Jmages Soltware - DAMIEN STONES
programmer of Space Gun.

sequences there are,’ explained Rob.
We then work out which ones we can
emulate on the CPC.’

Each machine has different
processors and therefore different
problems. Some are more suited to a
particular conversion than others.
Naturaliy, 16-bit provides more scope,
memory and versatility than 8-bit, but it
really is quite amazing what can be
achieved on a good old Amoldl

Rob's grin became just a little bit
broader. There's been a lot of trying to
get too much into a game recently.
Stacks of rubbish on The front’ and
vety little game! We aim to get the
balance right... a nice little front
sequence, but the major work devoted
to tile game itself.'

Very laudable and all very well, but
this smacks of another of those multi-
load games. Not too bad if you buy the
game on disc, but what about the poor
old, long suffering and much neglected,
cassette user?

‘We have a unique compression
technique,' said Rob proudly, ‘which
we hope will help us to avoid this on
cassettes.’

Almost a year is required to complete
the conversion. About eight months of
this is intensive programming, burning
of much midnight oil, miss^ meals,
irritability, anti-social behaviour and
pure frustration. Sometimes games
programmers are not nice people to
know!

It’snotjusta nine-to-five occupation.
Rob has lost count of the number of
ti mes he has had to take his work home
to solve a particularly difficult problem.
Luckily, his wife Loma is tolerant to an
extreme and even tries to help him by
playing the game and offering criticism.
As an ‘ordinary' games player, she is
able to cut through the bias and remove
his rose-tinted spectacles. If I^niasays,

‘ it doesn’t work' - it doesn't work!

My appetite having been whetted, I
wanted to see the game being played.
Rob took me into another room where
a collection of stripped-down
(vandalised?) coin-op machines
appeared to be awaiting transportation

Page 50

to the nearest junk yard. Not so, they
were in this state because the lads at
Images had extensively modified them
to provide unlimited lives and various
other tricks to make the job that little
bit easier.

Without asmuch asusingaSOp piece
Rob fired-up Cr-Loc, and there we were,
rolling down the runway in the
unfamiliar cockpit of an A85 Mark 2
Zeek - whatever that is. Immediately
after take-off Rob did a victory roll and
the horizon spun like a propeller,
(Nobody likes a Smart Ass!) Rob
grinned , and with consumate ease, shot
down a couple of enemy planes.
Actually, the first level which is to
destroy eight (I think) is quite easy.
Each level gives you a few extra targets
that become increasingly more difficult
to hit. Some of them even have the
temerity to fire back!

The various levels (on the coin-op)
give you different types of terrain to fly
over and to my eye the most spectacular
of these is flying the Zeek, Top Gun
style through a tricky canyon. Just below
cliff height. One mistake and you very
quickly get relegated to Bottom Gun -
wheels up, on the canyon floor!

There are all the usual aids to give
you every advantage. These include a
Head-Up Display (HUD), radarwaming
systems that show all enemy plane in
and out of sight, artificial horizon,
damage indicator, fuel gauges, rapid-
fire, laser (?) canon, radar guided
missiles and an automatic Landing
System. Watching the latter bring you

in to land on the deck of an aircraft
carrier is great fun and pretty
spectacular. Obviously you have to land
at a friendly base for instant
maintenance and re-arming.

What really sets G-Loc apart is its
unique ‘out of cockpit zoom’ feature.
TVhat the hell is that?' I hear you ask.
(You did ask, didn't you?) Stay with me
and Ill fry to explain.

G-Loc is abit like playing
but being transplanted right into the
plane's cockpit with the additional
feature of a two-way ejector seat! In
other words, you can play it from the
pilot's point of view, but have the added
facility of ‘zooming' out of the cockpit
to just behind the plane to give a wider
view. You can ‘zoom’ back again at the
touch of a button! Gameplay is not
dissimilar to Digital Integration's ATF
game of a fewyears ago, but G-Loc is in
3D!

Once I had absorbed the flavour of
the original, Rob whisked me back to
his work desk and switched on the
CPC, and a PC. In between was a little
‘black box’, about the same size and
shape asa Multiface, which linked them
called a PDS (Programmer’s Design
System).

Everything is written on the PC with
no regard to the available memory of
the CPC. When everything Is working
perfectly, the amount of memory used
is then checked and compression
techniques are employed to make it fit,
if necessary.

*We download everything from the
PC to the CPC using this system,’ said
Rob in answer to my obvious question,
I was looking at the PC, whose screen

Amstrad Osar Marclt 19^

Screen shots of CPC version of G-Loc.

showed the biggest ‘menu' Td ever
seen,

‘PDS is quite nice/he explained like
a patient, headmaster. ‘We get a total of
eight flies and can keep up to 30K of
source coding. We shuffle bits in and
out as we need tliem, rather tlian load
everytliing at once.’

He hit a few buttons and the CPC
screen lit up like an arcade. I was looking
at a pretty accurate simulation of G-
Loc’s first level. Even the instrument
panel looked familiar, though it didn't
iiave the fine detail of the original. Not
bad though.

WeVe got the Radar system here
just as we have on the coin-op. We cut
down a little on the HUD so that we
could get more info onto the
(instrument) panel/ explained Rob.

He executed the now customary
victory roll and once more the artificial
horizon did a remarkably smooth 360.

Tire horizon routine was the first
thing I did... it was quite fiddly getting
it right and 1 combined it with the HUD
to speed screen clearance and maintain
momentum during gameplay. It
cont^ns a number of small, re-usable
routines. Next the ‘spin' (victory roll),
the instrument panel and fast sprite
routines were completed,’

I must confess I had expected to see
vector style, wire frame graphics, but
here I was looking at filled-in
backgrounds and ‘solid’ airplanes. All
pretty impressive considering the
memory limitafions of the CPC.

Rob started blasting. The first direct
hit took me by surprise. It was quite
impressive. An enemy airplane
exploded in a mass of orange flame and
black smoke. I could almost taste the
cordite and scorched metal.

Rob paused the game. This was the
next stage, creating events such as the
explosions, which are similar to the
Sega, and the game control routines.
These are the routines which read
through the maps of the levels and
bring on the enemy planes at the right
time, control the progression between
levels and give bonuses for “missions
completed” etc.'

He produced aboutfour sheets of A4
which seemed to detail the
heiroglyphics ofTutenkhamen. It was
actually a schematic map of G-Loc’s
gameplay, painstakingly drawn for him
by trainee programmer, Gary
Hammond. Gary is on a VI'S scheme
and this job represents his first small
step to becoming a professional
programmer.

Rob explained that the map showed
the coin-op’s sequence of events as a
player progresses through all levels.
For example, it details each wave of

Amstrati User March 1332

Screen shot ot version of Space Oun.

enemy aircraft and their pattern of
movement. This plan enables him to
make adjustments to his routines and
en sures the game becomes an accurate
conversion.

The game was up and running again
and Rob was doingafine impersonation
of Tom Cruise. Enemy aircraft were
dropping like FUt infected flies!
Suddenly he was caught in a crossfire.
The whole screen and cockpit seemed
to Judder and I half expected the
monitor to fragment into a thousand
pieces. The damage indicator on the
instrument display lit up and the red
glow indicated that he had suffered
about 30% damage. Not too bad at this
stage, but he couldn’t make another

couple of mistakes like that!

Thai Uttle trick is courtesy of the
CPC’s hardware/ he said excusing
himself. ‘Anyway, the damage is
magically repaired after each “section”
of gameplay!* Just as well.

He confinued blasting for a while,
showing me various patterns of
gameplay and effects, and flying his
‘magically repaired’ Zeek perilously
dose to the ground.

'Some form of ground effect was
required (to give the feeling of speed
and height) and we used a blob
technique which, as you can see, is
quite effective. Now watch this!’

He pressed a couple of buttons on
the PC and Arnold’s screen blacked
out for a few seconds. ITien suddenly
there was the ubiquitous Zeek flying

down that amazing canyon - and there
didn’t seem to be much room!

This is the fun bit that nobody
expected us to be able to do. We’ve got
some canyons! I know it’s not quite as
graphically wonderful as the arcade
version, but they are there to be flown
down and they aren’t too bad!’
Understandably, he was preening just
a little. That was a nice little trickl’

Rob is getting to the end of his
programming now, he’s just ‘tidying-
up’. At the time of writing he says that
he has about a week’s work left on the
CPC version.

Tve completed all the levels and we
have the exact same number as the
original - an as near as possible
conversion!’

1 thought the last sentence summed-
up Rob’s whole attitude: A burning
desire to do the job properly and do it
well. Perfectionism is becoming
something of a lost attribute, which has
been reflected in loo many of the awful
conversions I’ve seen in the past. My
biggest regret is that programmers of
Rob’s ability continually have to work
on conversions. Wouldn’t it be nice if
he could use this creativity and
expertise to produce something truly
original? Is there anybody out there?

As far as G-Loc is concerned, I’m
convinced that US Gold have
commissioned themselves a number
one. It’s probably the only shoot ‘em up
1 have actually wanted to play. 1 suppose
you could also say that Rob Hylands
and Images have managed to perform
an ‘as near as possible conversion’ on
me!

Okay, okay... fuel up the Zeek and
Pfiss the joystick!

Fage 51

WIDGETS

AWAY

Doc Watson gives the low down on the plug

connection conundrum

B rrr! I’ve decided that the middle
of winter is definitely not the
best time to have your central
heating system overhauled. Here I am
huddled around my computer, icicles
dangling from the disk drive, fi:^ntically
spraying de-icer at the monitor and
desperately trying to keep warm
(pauses to blow on hands)* One slight
bonus of this cold spell and long winter
evenings is that Tm more willing to
devote time to programming (actually
this is a complete lie - it merely serves
as a tenuous link to the next sentence).
Speaking of programming. I’d just
like to say how refreshing it is to work
with my CPC having spent several
months developing a Windows 3
application on a PC. All these dynamic
link library thingies (DLLs), API calls,
GUI events, dynamic data exchange
(DDE), object linking & embedding
(0 LE), plu s a whole host of otb er Tf-As
(three letter abbreviations) - an old
ZX81 joke there - are just too much to
handle. Surely there must be a simpler
way to print the words ’Unrecoverable

Application ErroP on the screen?! OK
so perhaps the CPC can’t boast the
latest whiz bang object-oriented
compiler to attract programmers, but
at least you can have a lot of fun with it.

Owning an unusual printer can be
the source of many a headache, as
A.Sheldon fromNottingham describes:

"Can you or one of your readers help,
I have an 0kimate20 printer which is an
oflshoot marketed bylCL Ltd. I have had
excellent assista nee from Paul Dresser of
Oki Systems (UK), but the machine /
own is an ICL 9 pin ‘D-type with RS423
interface.

It works OK but / find that the
instructions Jbr the control codes and
DIP switches appear to be different to the
0ki20.1 have written to and telephoned
ICLbutcameto a complete dead-end. Do
you have an up to date address?

ACU had a special offer on this printer
for its readers although Ipu rchased m ine

Page 52

at a rally recently and would welcome
any help. Also, anyone with a 464
wanting a desktop publishing program,
may I recommend the Pagesetter64 sold
by Bit? Computer Sojtware of Kettering.
1 am not connected with Bit?, but it is
good for the 464 user and ifs only a
tenner.

I’m afraid no-one here at ACU has
a suitable address but, not wanting
to see a grown Okimate20 owner
cry, I’ll gladly print your address.
You may be interested to read
Stewart Hughes' letter in the

December ’91 issue as he also owns
one of these printers. In the meantime,
if any warm hearted reader wishes to
help A.Sheldon then write to 6
Kirkstead Gardens, Nottingham. NG7
5EJ or the usual ACU address if you'd
prefer.

Sound Advice

Amidst a veritable chorus of
bleeps, pings and whistles, Keneth
Park from Newent in Gloucestershire
writes:

Through the pages of ACU, or fwm
one of your contributors, could I ask
whether anyone knows of a publication
or an article dealing with the algorithms:
SOUND-ENT-ENV simulating, on a

CPC612S, the sound of a musical
instrument e.g. piano, trumpet, guitar
etc?

There must be someone who has
attempted this! To start experimenting
with envelopes from scratch could take
forever...”

Indeed it might Mr. Park which is
why IVe never really got to grips
with the CPC’s envelopes myself.
However, as the saying goes, I know a
man who does - Ian Waugh. This
talented individual has written
several books on sound generation
using microcomputers, but the one
of particular interest to Amstrad
owners is ‘Making music on the
Amstrad CPC’ published bv Sunshine
Books ISBN 0-946408-82-3. This
book was used as the basis for half a
dozen or so articles written by Ian and
published in ACU at the start of 1991,
so why not order yoursel fan armful of
back issues!

In the meantime, here are a few
interesting sound effects to keep you
going:

10 FOR N=1 TO 7 STEP 0.25
20 SOUND 1,95,1,N,0,0,1
30 SOUND 1,400, LN,0,0,31
40 SOUND 1,0,20,0
50 NEXTN
60’

70 ENT 1,10,1,8
80 ENV 1,5,1,5,1,0,200
90 SOUND 1,50,200,6,1,1,3
100 SOUND 1,48,50,5,1,1,6
110 SOUND 1,48,10,5,1,1,1
120 SOUND 1,50,150,6,1,1,3
130'

140 FOR N=i TO 3

150 ENV 1,1,1,20

160ENT-1,1,3,1

170 SOUND 1,284,-5,10,1,1,3

Amstrad User March 1992

180 NEXT N
190'

200 ENT 4,1,4,2,1,4,2
210 SOUND 1.50,100,4,0,1
220 '

230 ENV 1,1,15,5,5.1,10,10,4,5

240 FOR N=1 TO 4

250 SOUND 1,16,0,0,1,0,15

260 NEXT N

270'

280 ENl'4,1,4,2,1,4,2
290 SOUND 1,50.100,4,0,11

Serial Killer (the continuing saga)

You may recall a letter in last month’s
column from Keith Sterrow regarding
the operation of a serial printer with
Brunword Elite. As promised, 1
contacted Peter B running to see if he
could shed any light on the problem.
Sadly very little was resolved and, after
a lengthy telephone conversation, it
appears that Mr. Brunning felt that my
sole intention was to point out flaws in
his product. ITiis is of course untrue.
Apart from the fact that 1 think
Brunword Elite is the most powerful
CPC word processor available
(although not the one 1 use), I don’t
honestly believe that its inability to drive
a fairly obscure daisywheel serial
printer via an KS232 interface connected
to the expansion port could be
construed as a major ;^iling.

Indeed, the whole point of Keith’s
letler is that his setup and intended
application are extremely specific and
thus require specific help. It really does
sadden me that commerical paranoia
should blind anyone from this fact-

Therefore, last month’s challenge still
stands - can you devise a solution to
this seemingly impossible problem?
The address remains the same as
always.

Driven insane

As 3-5” second disk drives fall in price
and subsequently rise in popularity,
one element of the ACU readership has
been feeling increasingly left out in the
cold. No Pm nottalkingabout thecentral
heating again, rather those people who
own 6128+s. ITie problem is that the
connectors on the disk drives don’t fit
onto their computers - until now that
is. Enter the ACU 6128+ second disk
drive adaptor (prettj^ snappy name
huh?).

To build this miracle of modem
technology you will need the following:

30 way Centronics plug (Maplin code
FJ61R)

Amstrad User Marctj 1932

17x2 Edge connector reversiboard
(Maplin code GB99H)

Wire of choice

(NOTE: You may have to trim the
reversiboard down from 25x2, a
hacksaw will do nicely)

Having obtained these components,
simply solder lengths of wire between
the two connectors according to the
extraordinarily clear diagram... and
that’s it!

Storni in a teacup?

Andrew Elston of Leicester has some
rather amhitious plans for his tmsty
CPC:

"I have long been interested in
computer simulations and in particular
modelling real-world phenomena such
as the weather. Having recently been
enthralled by a television documentary
about how tens of thousands of
measurements are fed into a European
supercomputer, which then uses its
model of the world to predict the
weather, 1 wondered if my humble

Amstrad 6128 could perhaps do
something similar - albeit on a much
smaller scale. Also, could this be
adapted to show the future effects of
global warning!

I realise thisrequestisalittle unusual
but such applications of computers are
much more interesting than the usual

immi

mixture of games, spreadsheets etc,”
Hmmmm.. .er,..yes well it certainly
sounds like an interesting idea. I’ve no
doubt a CPC could model a tiny slice of
the atmosph ere bu t just how much and
how accurately I honestly don’t know,
From what 1 can gather the physics of
the earth’s atmosphere are rather
complex and not entirely understood
but I bel you're in for some very h^ry
math s! Why not contact the MET office
and ask (extremely nicely) for a list of
books/papers on the subject - I’m sure
they’d be only too pleased to help.

In the meantime I thought I’d write

my very own weather forecasting
program. It might not be as sexy as
John Kettley but it’s got to be more
believable...

"Tomorrow morning m\\ be dry and
clear to start with, followed by a little
light rain from the south. Strong winds
will spring up together with fog and
thickening mist. Torrential rain will
pour down and sleet and snow may
afreet roads in the north. ITiunder,
lighning, storm-force winds and gales
will develop.

Tornadoes and volcanic eruptions
will devastate south-east England and
the rest of the country will suffer
earthquakes, land slides, hurricanes
and nuclear war. Whole cities will be
consumed in fire and floods while the
pitiful remnants of humanity run
screaming for shelter in holes in the
ground which will subsequently
collapse and bury them for all eternity .
Devastation will tear across the face of
the earth like a whirlwind, and plagues
of leprosy, locusts, bovine spongiform
encephalitis and nintendo video games
will make the death agonies of the
human race even more sunk in misery.
Mountains wiU topple and crush the
plainsdwellers; the seas ’vrill rise and
swallow up the lowlands. The
atmosphere will become an
unbreathable mixture of nitric acid and
glue, and the bones of those centuries
dead will explode from their coffins to
haunt those still living. Finally theearth
will split apart in an explosion of fire
and brimstone and the four horsemen
of the apocalypse will arrive to herald
the Last Age of Man. The evening will
be fine and warm although scattered
showers are possible in the south-west
and outlaying regions.”

Until next time, stay lucky and don't
forget to write! Don’t forget whether
your problem is large or small, we can
get you the lowdown to help you out.

Page 53

iLimi

TH E

ELECTION
GAME

:100

10:blank$:

5 MODE i

10 INK 14 , 7 : ]NK 15^15
£0 DIM POSI (3Kptir-t^yt3.) .cashO)

30 cash(1 ) =500:cash(2)=300:cash(3}

40 GOSVE 8000 : blanks = FOR. f-i TO
) :NEXT

50 DIM pop(3Kbaardc120):popi1)=40:pop{2}=40
GO FOR f=l TO 20:READ boardc[f):NEXT

70 ClS:].aC.4TE I.IO^PEN 2 : PRINT" Lang th of game ?’-:PRINT"l -
hort (10 days ) " ^PRINT''2 Medium (15 days ) : PR I NT" 3 - Long

20 days]

80 aS-lNKEYS:IF AND a$<>"2^^ AND aS<>"3^' THEN 80

90 IF a$="r' THEN day5=10 ELSE IF al="2" THEN day5=15 ELSE
F ^^5 = ’^3" THEN day 5 = 20

100 CLS: PRINT "Doss anyone want to ba- the Conservative party

-blankS+CHHS(255
pop(3)= 20

? (Y or NT'
no AS = !NKEY$
130 IF

140 CLS;PRINT
{Y or NT'
150 A$=TNREY$
IF

CLS;PRINT
party (Y
A$-INKEYS
IF a$ = ^>"

IF ASO'^y" AND ASO^'n'^ THEN 1 LO
THEN party(l)=l ELSE partyU)=0
"Does anyone want to be the Labour party?

170

180

rat

190

210

300

320

1000

1005

CATE

1007

1010

1020

GOTO

1030

IF A$<>-^y'^ AND a$<>''n^' THEN J50
THEN party(2)=1 ELSE party(20=0
"Does anyone want to bs the Liberal
or N)"

IF A$<>"y" AND aS<>"n" THEN 190
THEN party!3)=1 ELSE party[3)=0
MODE 0:GOSUB 9000:GOSUB 9400
P05 i t 1 ) = 1 : po5 i { 2 ) = 1 : po5:i (. 3 .) = I
REM Main Game Loop
GOSEJB 9300: PAPER 4; PEN 5 : LOCATE 5
5,9:PRINT days;"daysLOCATE 5,10
FOR f=l TO 2000:NEXT
FOR ploop=l TO 3

GOSUB 9500:GOSUB 9300:PAPER 4;PEN
1040

GOSUB 9000:GOSUB 9300
PEN 14tL 0CATE 5,8:IF ploopzl THEN

Democ

a : PR I NT" The r
PRINT^no go

14: IF party(ploop)=0

PRINT"Tories'' ELSE IF

I 040

pleop=2 THEN PR INT"Labour" ELSE IF ploop-3 THEN PRINT^Lib-D
ein"

1043 LOCATE 5,9:PRINT"throw a";dice
1050 FOR f=l TO 1500:NEXT

1060 go=pl oop': old = pos i t pi oop ) : post (ploop)=posi (ploopj+dicei I
F pos i t pl^50p^ > 20 THEN posi ( ploop ) =posi ( pi oop )-20 : cash ( pIoop )
= cash{ploopf +30

1070 GOSUB 3900:REM blanks old pn5ition, draw 5 new
GOSUB 5000: REM beard etc.

GOSUB 9400:GOSUB 9BOO
FOR f=l TO 1500:NEXT
next pLoap

days=days-I:IF days>0 THEN 1000
GOSUB 9300:PAPER 4:PEN 14:LOCATE 5

1080
1090
1100
1 110
1 500
1510
CATE
2000
2010

BrpRrNT" POLLING'* :LO

TO 2000:NEXT

5,9: PRINT" DAY'': FOR f = !

REM START THE ELECTION

BORDER 0:PAPER 5:CLS:FOR f=l TO 80:PAPER INTtRND(1 )*]5+
1):PEN INT( RND( 1 ) *15+1 ) :PR1NT"» ELECTION R.EStJLTS SOUND 1

,iRND!1)*1000),10 :NEXT

2020 MODE 1:INK 0.0:PAPER 0:CLS:PEN I :LOCATE I .3:PH I NT "It's
election njght and the results are starting to come in. Und
er the new Proportional Representation laws imposed hy

the EEC a f ter prs 1 i t i ca I uni on a "

BY DUNCAN EVANS

This is it, the big one! As the niiajor
political Parties indulge in the usual
argie-bargie and doubielalk to ensure
the winning position at the polling sta’
tions, this is your chance to decide the
outcome before the event!

Decide to take the part of either the
Tories, Labour or the Liberal Demo¬
crats and battle to win the popularity
stakes in this superb board game,
controlled by the dice. With a choice of
a iO-day, short run up to the big day, or
a fully blown campaign, you and two
friends, or you against the computer,
mu St use strategy and cunning to make
the right decisions to win the big prize.

At the end of the day, sit back and
watch the election results coming in
and see if your campaign succeeded.
This is a bit of a long one, so type in this
month’s listing, then add nextmontirs
to it, along with tiie full instructions,
then get ready to do battle on a ’Major’
scale. Good luck, you’re going to love
this one.

PAge 54

Amtratt User March 19S2

lUSTKI

£0 22 FR INT"pFif ty must score over to win an outright

ma jor i ly . " ^

2025 PAPER 3; PEN 1 ; LOCATE 1 , I'S : PRTNT"PAETY SEATS

VOTE % TOTAL It"; PAPER 0 ; PEN 2 ; PE INT'XoriservBti ve” : PR INT : PE
N 3 ; PRINT'^Lobctuii'" iPRlNT: PEN 1 : PRINT" Li b Democrats"

2026 FOR f=l TO 3; IF pc>p(f )-t5 THEM pop(f)=5

2027 IF poptr)>35 THEN pop(f)=95
2023 NEXT

2030 tory =0 ; 1 ab=0 : LD=0 ; j:%=pfipt 1 }+Pop( 2 } tpop( 3 ) ^ 1 ; FOft f?i-l TO

2040 aslNTtRNDt 1 ) ; IF a< = poptl) THEN tor y = tory+i ; GOTO 207

2050 IF a>pop(l) AND a<“tport 1)+pop(2) ) THEN lab=1abH1 lGOTO
2070

2060 ld=ld+i

2070 PEN 2;LOCATE 16,14;PRINT tory;LOCATE 25,14:PRINT TNT(to
ry/flt* 1 00+0.5) ; LOCATE 34.14: PRINT INT (tory / 625» 1 00 + 0,6 )

2080 PEN 3: LOCATE 16,16; PRINT lab: LOCATE 25, 16; PRINT LNTdab
/f%*100+0,5):LOCATE 34.16:PRINT INTUab/GZS*100+0•S)

2030 PEN 13;LOCATE 16,18;PRINT Id;LOCATE 25,]S;PRINT INT(ld/
f%tl00+0,5 ):locate 34,18;PRIMT INTtld/G25*100t0.5)

2100 NEXT

2110 LOCATE 1,20; PEN I : PAPER 3;PFlINT"ThG winners are the " ; I.
OCATE 21, 20;IF tory>lab AND tory >ld THEN PR INT"Corse pvh live

party"

2120 IF lab>tory AND lab>ld THEN PRINT"Lfibtiur party"

2130 IF ld>toi'y AND ld>ltib THEN PRINT"f. 1 b-Democrat party"

2140 IF )ab=tory AND lab>ld THEN PR INT"Lahour A Tories"

2150 IF lab-Id AND lab>tory THEN PRI NT"Labour L LibDeras"

2160 IF tory=ld AND tory>lab THEN PRINT"Lib-Dem ft, Tnriss"

2170 PRINT " Press any key to play another game
2180 while INKEYS="";wend;RDN

5000 REM This is what happens o each sciuare of the board. Wh
en you get bored, simply change the text and refiiilts,

5005 GOSUB 0,300 ;PEN 4 ; 1,OCATE 5,14: PRINT blank$: PAPER 4
5010 ON posUgo) GOTO 5100,5200,5300.5400,5500,5600,5 700,580
0.5300,6000,6100,6200,6300,6400,6500,6600,6700,6300,6300,700
0

5100 PEN ]4;LOCATE 5.6; PR I NT"CAMPA IGN " ; LOCATE 9,7 : PRINT"Htl" ;
LOCATE 5,9;PRINT"You can";LOCATE 5,10;PRINT"put your":LOCATE
5,11rPRINT’reet up-

5105 IF ptjrtylgo}=0 THEN FOR f=l TO 1000:NEXT;RETURN

5110 LOCATE 5.14:PRINT"Pro35 key"; WHILE INKEYS =WEND: HKTllR

5200 PEN 5:LOCATE 5,6;PRINT "Appear an":LOCATE 5,7:pRiNT"Wog
an ?":LOCATE 5,8;PRlNT"Press Y/N";IF party!go)=0 THEN 5230
5210 nS = INKEYS:lF AS<>"y" AND aSO'-n" THEN 6210
5220 IF aS = "n" THEN LOCATE 5,11;PRINT"DECL1 NED";FOB 1 = 1 TO 1
000;NEXT:RETURN

5230 ft=INT(RND(1)* 10041):IF a<76 GOTO 5250

5240 poptgo)=pop(so)-2:1F go=l THEN pop(2)=pop(2)+1:pop(3)=p
opI3)+l

5242 IF so=2 THEN pop(1)“pop(1 I+I :pop!3 )=pdp( 3)f1

5244 IF go“3 THEN pop(1 )=pop( 1)+1;pop(2)=pop(2 I + 1

5246 LOCATE 9,14;PRINT”poor":FOR f=l TO 1000;NEXT;RETURN

5250 pop(go J :;pop(so J+ 4 ; IF so=.I THEN pop( 2 ) =pDpt 2 I-2 ; pop! 3 J =p

op!3l-2

52S2 IF go=2 THEN pop( 1) =pap( I )-2 rpop(, 3 I =pap( 3 J-2
5254 IF go = 3 THEN popU ) =pop (1)-2 ; pop ( 2 ) spop (2 ) - 2
5260 locate 9,L4;PHlNT"good":F0ft f=l TO 1000:NEXT:RETURN
5300 PEN 3:LOCATE 5,6;PRINT "Bribe the";LOCATE 5,7rPRlNT"new
spapers";LOCATE 5,3:PHINT"Press Y/N";LOCATE 5,14:PRINT"100k"

; IF par ty ( go .) =0 THEN 5330

5 310 eS = JNKEVS: IF AS<>“y^^ AND a$<>"n;‘ THEN 5310

5320 IF aS="n'* THEE^ LOCATE 5, U ^PRINT^TFCLINED^^ FOR f=l TO 1

OOO:NEXT:RETURN

5 32& IF caah (goji <100 THEN LOCATE 5 , 14: PRINT b 1 ankS : LOCATE B,
14:PRINT'MHO CASH1"jSOUND 1.400,50:FOR f = l TO 1500rNEXT:RETU
RN

5330 cash(.go)=cashUo) -100 : 0 = INK RND( U * 1 00+1 ) : IF a<7R GOTO
5350

5335 IF posi(a'oJ = 12 THEN 5240

5 340 pop ( go )-pop ()-1 0 : IF £0=1 THEN pop( £ ) “pop ( £ ) + 5 : pop ( 3 ) =
PDP131 + 5

5342 I F go = 2 THEN pop ! 1 ,) =pop (1 )+5 : pop ( 3 ) =pop ( 3 )

5344 IF gQ=3 THEN pop(1)=pop(1)+5:pop(£)= pop( 2)+5
5346 LOCATE 9.14:PRINT"bad":FOR f"l TO 1000:NEXT:RETURN
53&0 pop [ go ) =pop( go )+G ; IF go^^l THEN pop( £ )• =pop{ £ )-3 : pop ( 3 Kp
op(3J-3

Amstratl UsBr Mateh 1§^

P^e55

lOSTINGI

5362 IF gci = 2 THEN pop ( U =pop (1)-3 ; pop ( 3 J =pop ( 3 f-3

5354 IF go=3 THEN pop(1)=pop(1)-3:pop(2Jspop(2)-3

5360 LOCATE 9,14;PRrNT"grsat";FOR f=l TO 1000:NEXT;RETURN

5400 PEN 6:LOCATE 5,6;PR INT "Go baby";LOCATE 5,7:PRlNT"kiaai

ng":LOCATE 5,8:PRINT"Prsss Y/N":1F party|go)=0 THEN 5430

5410 aSrlNKEVSiIF ASO 'y" ANO a5<>"n" THEN 5410

5420 IF THEN LOCATE 5,U:PHINT"DECLINED";FOR f=l TO 1

000;NEXT:RETURN

5430 a=INT(RNDU MlOO+1 ) r IF a<7e GOTO 5450
54 40 LOCATE 9,14 ; PRINT"ni 1" : FOR TO 1 $00: NEXT; RETURN
5450 pop(go)=popigo)+2:IF so=l THEN pop(2f=POP<21-1;pop(3 )=p
op; 3 ) -1

5452 IF go = 2 THEN pop(1)=popLl)-1:pop{3)=pop(3)-1
5454 IF gt>=3 THEN pop( 1 >i=pop( 1J-1 ; pop{2 ) =popt 2 )-1
5460 LOCATE 9,14:PRINT"good":FOR f=l TO 1000:NEXT:RETURN
5 500 PEN 14; LOCATE 5.6: PRINT '’Produce a"; LOCATE 5,7; PH 1ST" Is
aflGt";LOCATE 5,8:PRI NT"campaign LOCATE 5,12■PRlNT"Press
Y/N";IF party(6o)=0 THEN 5530

5510 aS = INKEYS:IF A$<>"y'' AND THEN 5510

5520 IF aS="n" THEN LOCATE 5,11:PRINT"DECLINED";FOR f=l TO 1

000:NEXT;RETURN

5530 a=INT(RND(1)*100+1):TF a<76 GOTO 5560

5540 LOCATE 9.14:PRlNT"None";FOR f=l TO 1000!NEXT;RETURN

5550 pop(bo) =pop(gcp)+2 r IF go-1 THEN pop( 2 J =pop( 2 }- 1; pop( 3) =p

op(3}-l

5552 IF go=2 THEN pop(1)=pop(1)-1;pop(31=pop(3)■1

5554 IF gQ=3 THEN pop( 1}=pop(1)-1;pop(2}=popt2)-1

5560 LOCATE 9,14:PRINT"good":FOR f=l TO 1000:NEXT;RETURN

5600 PEN 5: LOCATE 5,6; PR I NT "Back bsnchLOCATE 5,7;PRlST"di

sputa"

5650 pop(so)ipop{go)-4;IF go=l THEN pop(2)=pop(2>+2:ppp{3 )=p
op{3)+2

5652 IF go=2 THEN pop(1)=pop(I)+2:pop(31=pQp(3)+2
5654 IF go=3 THEN pop{1)spop(1)+2 :pop( 2)spop(2)+2
5660 LOCATE 9,14;PR I NT"poor";FOR f=l TO 1000;NEXT;RETURN
5700 PEN 5;LOCATE 5.6:PRINT "Book ads";LOCATE 5,7:PRINT'in p
apers?” : LOCATE 5,8 ; PRINT"Pr&ss Y/N'^': LOCATE 5 . 14 ; PRINT" 2 5k ' ; I
F partytgo)=0 THEN 5725

5710 aSrINKEY$iIF ASO ’y" AND aS<>’'n" THEN 5710

5720 IF a$="n" THEN LOCATE 5,11;PHINT"DECLINED":FOR fsl TO 1

000;NEXT:RETURN

5725 IF caBh(goK25 THEN LOCATE 5,14; PRINT blanks : LOCATE 5,1
4;PRINT"tNO CASHSOUND 1,400,50;FOB f=l TO 1500;NEXT:RETUR
N

5730 cash(go)=cash(go)-25;a=INT(RND(1)*100+1)EIF a<76 GOTO 6
750

5746 LOCATE 9,14:PRINT’none";FOR f=l TO 1000:NEXT:RETURN
5750 pop(goJ=poptgo)+6;IF go=l THEN pop<2)“pop(2)-3:pop(31-p
op(31-3

5752 IF gt>s2 THEN pop{ 1 ) spop (1 )-3 : pop( 3 1 =pop ( 3 )-3

5754 IF go = 3 THEN pop< 1) =popU )-3 ; pop {2 ) =pop( 2 1-3

5760 LOCATE 9.14;PRlNT"great";FOR f=l TO 1500:NEXT;RETURN

5800 PEN OiLOCATE 5,6:PRINT "Appear on":LOCATE 5,7;PRINT"Cha

nnel 47';LOCATE 5,8;PRINT"Press Y/N";IF party(go)=0 THEN 5B3

5810 aS=INKEYS;IF AS<>"y" AND aS<>"n" THEN 5810 |

5820 IF aS="n" THEN LOCATE 5,11;PHINT"DECLINED";FOR f=l TO I
000;NEXT:RETURN

5830 a=INT{RND(l)*100+l);IF a<76 GOTO 5850

5840 pop(go)=pop(go)-2:IF go=l THEN pop{21=pop(2)+1:pop(3)™p
op(3)+1

5842 IF go=2 THEN pop(11=pop(11+1:pop(3)-pop(3)+1

6844 IF go=3 THEN pop(1)-pop(1)+1;pop(21=popI 2)+1

5846 LOCATE 9,14:PRINT"poor";FOR f=l TO 1000:NEXT;RETURN

5850 pop{ go) =pcip (go)+ 2 ; IF go=l THEN pop( 2 ) = pop ( 2)-1: pop! 3 ) =p

op(3)-l

5852 IF go=2 THEN pop{1)=PQP(1)-1:pop{3)=pop(3)-1
5854 IF go = 3 THEN pop{ 1) =popU )-1 : pop ( 2 ) =popt 2 )-1
5860 LOCATE 9,14;PRINT"good";FOB f=l TO 1500;NEXT:RETURN
5900 PEN 12:L0CATE 5,6:PRINT "Start LOCATE S,7:PRINT"dtrty"

: LOCATE 5,8 :PRrKT'’tricks" ; LOCATE 5.9; PRINT “campaign?" ; LOCAT

E 5,10;PRIST"Press V/N";IF party(gQ)=0 THEN 5930

5910 a$=INKEY$:IF AS<>"y" AND a3<>"n" THEN 5910

5920 IF a$="n" THEN LOCATE 5,11;PRINT"DECLINED":FOR f=l TO 1

000:NEXT:RETURN

5930 a=INTiRNDU ) *100+1 ); IF a<76 GOTO 5350
5935 IF posi(go.)=17 THEN 6650

to be continued...next month

Page 56

Arntrad User March 1992

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LIST-IT-YOURSELF

Lisl-It-Voursdf an appJicatioii
program written in BASIC.

It stitisfies a need for a simple way
of keeping a record of most things
that one wishes to remember.
Adding data to the list is simple,
i^tering or deleting data is simple.
Retrieving a wantetl item frotii
the list of data is simple,

Thomas Betts kicks off a brand new BASIC

series to help novices get to grips with

programming, whilst giving more advanced

users an excellent utility to boot

Retrieving is also fast,

Tlie workitig ol the program is tie-
scriberl in a way which the beginner,
especially, can understand, but the
more experienced programmer too
could find something of interest, Ilie
copy cursoi is used in a way w^hich
experienced ])rogrammers have
probably discovered for themselves.
The novice will discover the way in

here. Conti

‘o] Character cmni

nands

seem to be

ignored by books(

in BA-

SIC prograi

mmiiig and by cent

iputer

magazines.

Discover them ii

[l tills

program an

d in this article.

UST-rr-YOURSELF

Why use a complicated database when
all you need is a simple list?

Computer magazine editors, on their
letters pages, have been known to
recommend an expensive software
package when a reader's letter was
asking how one could program their
new computer to keep a record of a
small number of items, and: "...but I
don't know where to start,”

Start here.

Although this article is addressed
mainly to those who have wanted help,
others too should find something of
interest.

Long ago. when I first started buying
computer magazines, I began to keep
records of the interesting and useful
items which I thought I might wish to
refer to at some future date. I kept
those records in a notebook until I
came to my senses and asked myself
what my computer was for. It was then
that I wrote what was, as far as 1 re¬
member, my own first program: it was
hardly a program at all, really, just a list
of references which could be displayed
on the monitor screen.

The list got bigger with each new
issue of a magazine, and finding what I
wanted in ray list, as it scrolled up the
screen, became a lengthy task. Kow
would I improve things?

One of the items I had listed was the
reference to a type-in program which

Page 58

sorted data into alphabetical order. But
will that help? Should ‘Simple List' be
entered under 'S’ or under 'L'? That is a
problem which exists when alphabeti¬
cal order is necessary to help a human
eye to do the searching; but the CPC
and its excellent BASIC language can
search through an unordered list from
the start to the finish quite fast enough.
My program would be doing the
searching for me.

If you are not completely new to
programming you can scan through
the detailed explanations of the fol¬
lowing Simple List program. If you are
new, then you will probably need to
refer to your User Handbook some of
the time.

Switch on your computer.

Type: 1 mode 1

Press the [ENTER] key.

Tlie CPC's BASIC programs will h ave
a number of lines, and in front of each
line will be its line number. If you have
read even just a little way into your CPC
User Instructions you will know that
you have just typed and entered line
number 1.

From now on T shall not say, ‘the
[ENTER] key'; instead 1 shall say,
‘[ENTERJ'.

Type: run 1

Press [ENTER].

This command (known in this in¬
stance as an immediate command be¬
cause it is executed as soon as it is
entered) v^ill run the one line program
which you have just installed. BASIC
will execute the program starting at
line 1. If no line number is quoted, the
program will execute from the begin¬
ning. In this program, of course, there
is no difference.

The program will clear the screen to
MODE 1, and terminate. The word
Ready will appear in the top left corner,
and the cursor on one line below at the
extreme left. The computer is ready for
more.

From now on I shall not say, Type
so-and-so. Press [ENTER]*; instead, I
shall say, ‘Enter: so-and-so’.

Enter: list

ITie screen shows: 1 MODE 1
You will see that MODE has been
printed in upper case, or capitals. All
BASIC keywords are automatically
converted to upper case, and MODE is
a keyword. Keywords mean something
specificin the BASIC language, MODE
is a command to change the screen
mode; it clears the screen and sets it to
have 20 or 40 or 80 columns according
to mode numberOor 1 or2 respectively.

If you make a practice of typing your
programs in lower case, then when you
list them, any mistyped keywords will
be noticeable because they will not
have been converted to upper case.
Enter: 2 locate 9,12
The LOCATE command moves the
text cursor- in this instance to position
9,12. That is 9 columns from the left
edge of the screen, and 12 rows down
from the top. In mode 1 the screen is 40
columns wide, so 9,12 i s 11 columns to
the left of the screen centre.

Enter; 3 P'ASIMPl^ LIST'

The question mark is a typing aid: it
stands for PRINT.

The keywords have been changed to
uppercase, and the ? appears as PRINT.

ITie many ways that the PRINT
command can be u sed are described in
the User Handbook. In our line 3 it has
printed a string: a string of characters
enclosed within inverted commas.

Enter: run

The program runs, and displays a
title screen, but the Ready message
and the cursor spoil the effect.

To tidy things up we will jump ahead
somewhat,

Enter: 4 locate 14,25
Enter: 5 ?"press [SPACE]"

Enter: 6 goto 4

GOTO is a command, and is used
here to cause the program to GO TO
line 4. lines 4,5,6, will keep repeating:
the program will be non-stop - never
ready. Press [lESCI twice and Ready
and the cursor will return to the screen.
One or more characters enclosed in
inverted commas form a type of data
known as a string constant, "A SIMPLE
LIST’ as in line 3 is a string constant,

Amstrad User March f992

We will use string variables to contain
all the items which we want to put into
our simple list.

Enter: 1001 a$="This is the firstitem"
Enter; 1002 b$= "ITiis is the second
item”

In earlier versions of BASIC these
lines would not he understood; the key¬
word LET had to be used when assign¬
ing values to a variable. LET x=4 is an
example, llie CPC BASIC does under¬
stand die LEI'command, if used, but it
is usually omitted,
a$ and b$ are the names of the siring
variables, and the words between the
inverted commas are their values. An
'a’ by itself in a BASIC program would
not be recognized as a keyword and
B ASIC would assum e it to be a numeric
variable, The dollar symbol ($) indi¬
cates a string variable. Actually, when 1
see b$ 1 don’t read it as bee dollar, but
as bee string.

Enter: run 1001
Enter: ?a$

Enter: ?b$

Note that there is no need fora space
after'?'

If we carry on with c$. d$... we will
run out of short names for the many
string variables which will be needed.
An array of string variables will serve
better.

Some of the lines in our Simple List
program will be amended before the
program is completed, and I shall
amend them by entering them anew
rather than by editing them: when a
BASIC line is entered with a line
number which already exists, the new
line replaces the old one. You may, if
you wi sh, amend th e old liii e by ed iting.

Enter: 1001 e$(l)="Thts is the first
item"

Enter 1002 e$ (2) = "Tins is the second
Enter: 1003 e$(3)-"third"

Enter 1144 e$(144)="This is the last
string in the simple list"
e$(l) is the first element in the e$
array, e$(2) is the second, and so on.
The number inside the parentheses is
the subscript. A large array is going to
be needed and so its size, or dimen¬
sion, must be declared. The size, if not
declared, becomes 10 by default.
Enter: 20 dim e$C144):gosnb 1000
dim e${144) declares a single di-
mension array of 145 elements: the
subscript index starts atO, not 1. BASIC
will reserve room in memory for 145
string variables.

Why am I using e as a variable name
and nut any other letter?

Weil, e stands for everything, I put
everything into my list, not only the
references, but telephone numbers;,
birthdays; what I did loti ay, if it was
worth remembering: all sorts.

Amstrad User March 1992

A BASIC line can have several
statements if each statement is sepa¬
rated by a colon. Line 20 is an eicample.
The GO SUB command, after the colon,
calls the sub-routine at line 10(X).

Enter: 1000 rem ** lire List **

Enter 1145 return
Enter: 10 mode 2

Euler: 50 ?:?: line input "Seek
what";s$:rem s for seek

I am sometimes puzzled about the
letter, or letters, of a variable name
which 1 see in published programs, so
in order to stop you wasting your time,
as I sometimes waste mine. I’ll explain
my names if they need explaining.

Line 1000 has a REM command
which tells BASIC that what follows in
this line is not a part of the program Lo
be executed, but is a REMinder, Here,
the reminder is the title of the sub¬
routine. The sub routine will start as^
signing the variables at line 1001, Tune
1145 is the last line of the sub-routine
and has a RETURN command to take
the program back to the point where a
GOSUB called the sub-routine.

MODE 2 commands a clean screen
witii a width of 80 columns.

LINE INPLTI’ is a com man d to accept
an entire line from the keyboard and
assign it, in this instance, to the string
variable s$ (line 50), If you enter run 50
on a CPC6128, the screen will show:
Seek what? BASIC expects there to be
a comma or a semi-colon just before s$
in line 50. If it is a semi-colon, as we
have here, then a question mark fol¬
lowed by a space is added after the
quoted string: Seek what. If it is a
comma, the question mark and space
are not added. My CPC464 does not
have this question mark feature.

Enter: 90 for i=l to 144

Enter: 100 t$=e$(j): rem temporary

string

Enter: 120 p=instr (t$,s$): rem p for
position

Enter: 130ifp-0 then 270
Enter: 135 ?t$

Enter: 270 next
Enter: 300 goto 40
Enter: 40 els

IJnes 90 and 270 are the beginning
and end of a FOR.,.NEXT loop. The
FOR and NEXT commands create a
loop with an automatic incrementing
(or decrementing) loop counter, ITie
loop executes repeatedly until the count
index, i in this case, reaches 144. "ITie
index is incremented on each circuit of
the loop.

We have given the name i to a nu¬
meric variable. Line 100 makes t$ the

same as eS(i), If i=3 then e$(l) will
equal third, as in line 1003 above, and
tS, also, will equal third.

In line 120, the INSTR function will
search through t$ for the s$ and indicate
the position within t$ where it is found:
if the t$ is: “This will be the last string"
and the s$ is: "n" then the position is 2.

If s$ is: "will" the position is 6 (spaces
count)If s$ is not present the position
will be 0 (zero).

IF is a command.

line 130: If p does equal zero then
the program will branch to line 270.
Note tliat the command in line 120
includes,, .then 270, meaning . . .THEN
GOTO 270: BASIC assumes the GOTO,

If p is >0 (greater than zero) line 135
will not be skipped, and t$ will be
. printed.

You will often see books on pro¬
gramming which condemn the use of
the command GOTO, but GOTO can,
in my opinion, be a useful co[nmand in
a small program and do a job which
cannot always be conveniently done by
other ways.

Enter: list 10-

The listing starts at line 10 and, be¬
cause of the ‘dash’ symbol, will continue
to the end of the program lines.

The screen should show:-

10 MODE 2

20 DIM e$(144): GOSUB 1000
40 CLS

50 PRIN'T: PRINT: LINE INPUT"Seek
what";s$; REM s for seek
90 FDR i=l to 144
100 t$=e$(i):REM temporary string
] 20 p=INSTR (tS,s$);REM pforposition
130 IF p=0THEN 270
135 PRINT t$

270 NEXT
300 GOTO 40

1000 REM **The last **

1001 e$(l)“ "Tltis is the first item"

1002 e$(2)= ’This is the second item"

1003 e$(3)="third"

1144 e$ (144)^ 'This is the last string in
the simple list"

1145KEHURN

If it doesn’t, correct it where you
went wrong and then:-
Enter: 136 stop

This is a temporary measure to
control the execution of the program.
Enter: mn 10

When you are prompted by Seek
what?, enter whatever it is you want to
find - this is sometimes known as the
target string - . Tty second to begin
with. As you might guess, the STOP
command stops execution immediately
Continued overleaf^*

Page 59

after the t$ hasbeenprinted; the screen
will show that there was a Break in 136.
The program can be made to continue:-

Enter: cont

- and do so again whenever the Break
message shows. When you have prac¬
tised to your satisfaction, press [ESC]
twice, and save the program if you feel
like a break. See the User Handbook
for how to save. Tliere is room, literally
so, for improvement to that bit of the
program, and first we will get rid of the
temporary line 136.

Enter: 400 ' ** press space **

Enter: 410 locate col,row: rem column
Enter: 420 ?''press [SPACE]"

Enter: 430while inkey$=’' ":wend:while
inkey$ < >" ":wend
Enter: 440 return

Line 400is the title of th e sub-routine
which delays execution of a program
until the space bar is pressed. The
apostrophe (') does the equivalent of
:REM indicating that BASIC should
ignore the rest of the line, col and row
are tiie numeric variables which will
hold the screen co-ordinates for x and
y of the LOCATE command. Line 430
has two WHILE...WEND loops. The
first is only sometimes necessary: it
repeats while the space bar is de¬
pressed. Th e second loop repeats while
it isn't. INKEY$ is a BASIC function
which interrogates the keyboard.

The W'HILE and WEND commands
create a loop which executes repeatedly
as long as the loop condition is true.
Their use here is not a good example
for explaining howThey behave. Have a
look at WHILE and WEND in the BA¬
SIC keywords chapter of your CPC
User Handbook.

Enter: 4 col=i4: row=25: gosub 400 :
rem press space sub-routine
Enter: 5
Enter: 6

Line 4 equates the co-ordinates for
the sub-routine. Entering just the line
numbers 5 and 6 deletes those lines.

The program can now start from the
beglnning:-

Enter: run

Now when the title screen appears,
pressing [SPACE] does work. Tliere
are two other places which will benefit
by the use of this sub-routine:-

Enter: 240 ?:?

Enter: 250 gosub 420:?

Enter: 290 gosub 420:?

Enter: 80 ?

Enter: 136

Line 136 has gone. The PRINT

Page SO

commands are to tidy the screen.

Those GOSUBs direct the program,
not to the beginning of the sub-routi ne,
but so as to miss out the l.OCATE
command in line 410. The intention is
to make the press [SPACE] message
appear just below the previous item on
the screen. Youll see if you run,

You have probably noticed that the
program’s ‘seek’ feature finds only the
first occurrence of a target string. To
find all occurrences:-

Enter 110 p=0

Enter: 120 p=mstr (p+1, t$, s$): rem p
for position
Enter. 260 goto 120
Enter: 280 ?'Not found”

Tlie INSTR function now includes
the optional ‘start' parameter, and the
search through the first string (t$) for
the second string (s$) starts at the
point indicated by the optional number
(p-nl). The search for the first occur¬
rence will start at position 0+1, and
subsequent searches will start just af¬
ter the position where the previous
occurrence was found.

Line 280 prints the message Not
found when there are no more occur¬
rences of the target string.

Have you noticed that if you enter
this as your target string, then the tar¬
get is not found? The lower case tof the
search string is not recognised as be¬
ing a match vs^th the capital T of This in
the data list. In a moment we will remedy
that problem; but the remedy will slow
down the search,

I have prepared a list of some 32,000
characters for a timing test. Before the
remedy, the time taken to find the very
last character in that list was 3.06 sec¬
onds; after the remedy it was 4,92 sec¬
onds. Those who believe what they
read about BASIC being slow will be
astounded to know that the CPC's
BASIC, as used here, can search at a
rate of more than 10,000 characters a
second. The thought of ‘slowing down
the search time’ is amusing to me now,
when I recollect that I wrote this pro¬
gram when 1 had no disc drive; loading
and saving on cassette took minutes,
not seconds.

Remedy :-

Enter: 120 p^instr (p+l,lower $(t$),
lower$(s$)): rem p for position

TTie LOVVER$ fiinction converts all
upper case characters to lower case.

ITie seek string (s$) this will now
find This.

Let us have some user friendliness;
after all, you are creating this program
for use by yourself.

Enter: 500 ’ ** Windows and keys **

Enter; 510 mode 2:window 1,80,1,22:
window#l,l,80,23,25
Enter: 520 ?#1, string$ (80,154);
"F6=RUN F7=I JSTF8=CATF9^SAVE”
Enter: 530 ?#1, ”A=AA C=C^VTA
U-ACU JAFE MR AP MY JE JLAU SE
OC NO DE"

Enter: 540 key 6, ''run''+chr$(I3)

Enter 550 key 7,"cls:Ust” +chr${13)
Enter: 560 key 8,"cat"+chr$ (13)

Enter: 570 key 9, ”save"+chr ${34) +"e^'
+cht$ (13)

Enter: 580 return
Enter: 30 gosub 500

Those lines give some reminder
messages to you, the user. In line 510,
the last statement commands that
windownumber 1 shall be from column
1 to column 80 of the bottom three
rows: 23, 24 and 25. Lines 520 and
530 print the messages in window
no.l (?#1,). If a window number is
not given, then number 0 is assumed.
The previous Statement in line 510
commands window no.O (by dekiult)
to be the whole screen except the
bottom three rows. The STRINGS
function in line 520 prints CHR$(154),

80 times.

Lines 540-570 re-define some func¬
tion keys. ITie e in line 570 is my file
name for my ‘everything' file. The
CHR$(13), in these four lines, is a
control character command being the
equivalent of [ENTER]. On the
CPC6128 the function keys are marked
fl,f2,f3,... On my CPC464 the function
keys are in a block of twelve keys to the
right of the main keys: they are marked
with the figures, but without the f pre¬
fix.

My CPC464 accepts the KEY com¬
mands as detailed above, but there
might be some models in existence
which do not. If yours is one of those,
then when you press [7] on the numeric
pad, -- after running the program and
pressing [ESC] twice - the screen will
show 7’ instead of listing the program.

In this case you should use the
expansion characters as given in the
appendix III of the Handbook. Instead
of‘key 6', type ‘key 134'; for ‘key 7', type
‘key 135'; for ‘S\ type T36'; for ‘9’,
typeT37’.

The messages, plus some others,
are those which I use; you will use your
own. You may be puzzled why 1 should
want to remind myself that JL means
July, Really, I need the reminder when
l am making entries, rather than when
I am reading tliem.

There is no easy way, yet, to add data
to your list so next month, we'll spend
some time making it easy. "Fill then,
spend time getting aquainted with the
program,

Amstrad User SSarch 1992

weB^ loadf^

Aphoniag up yourfevourite BuH^dn ^
^^^ Board, andibrmost<4tis|hls^i wdflr
most of the dme. But f haven't inet '
^^^ anyoneyetwhohasn'thiEld at least some
#6b1emstiyii^togelIusorWnwidem ,
connect vdfe lomeoite el3e%; One *"
way of iftleipredi^ ^d’s 1^* is that^
ycHi assmi^fhattt<rt0ngwlBgo wroj3^,
then somethiitgi if not everything, will!
\/tayway, even if ^ou never expetiaace'^
^ any problems whatsoever the tune wilU^
Purely come when someone van k now —
wjUjIiiMlyoutanj^o woffyoiure^ ^

i' _ knowledge^d ^DeriS^f

When a modem is ^tehed^on, it
W goes into its ^command modeV Here,

^ any chaffi]lre that you send to it are^
interpreted as ^mn^ds, and M It
what to do, like dial, answer, and
(^!]^lgnre1h&,thatMd1heothef?When j

p ll^s made a successful edaaection with
te ajjother modem, any diaractersyou®'
_ now send to it, get echoed stra^ht
. ^ along the phone line to the other
modem (and vkovers^: "While df$
^.^doing this, tfs mouttomg fof a spedaj^
^eharact^ sequence that tells U: to go
back into command mode, F>t^e* But
^kh chm-actem telllf to do what?
^•fTelHng the modm^whau: to do is »
Saltier sBke operating CF/M, bat just'
possdbly easier! Most modem modems*^’
^ ^ caBed 'Hayes’ compatible^;:

This m^^ that ti^ all the same

set of cornmands lo operate^theoL Fm
told thatli^ in thepakymen modems
^re first bemgmaiiufachire^ modem
desig:^fsjifere incllfied to give their
ownmiodem its own set of commands
to o^rate it As-I^ sure you can
^imagine, this could niak^ thhg^giiite^
confusmgi As'an analogy, how ^y
would itl»0le^|oprogrammBMIG
if you used sevcrai d^erratcomputers
^ each had a diilerenTv)^ibn of the ^
laTguag^ (Yes, I know thej^do.)
! ^Any vffity^ the^ point is thatone Off ^
.Imbdemcommands b^gaii to be used
^more consisfiffi'tlyT^uiid bec^e
i^^lHMard, and these commands wferW
those of the Hayes modem,

OK So as to avoid confu^on. I'll put
characters that you call type in, or get
printed on the screen, in bold and any
keys to press will be Oi bold and in
square brackets [ j^lmokuB of the
Hayes commands'begin with AT
(Affentkn)vTly lo^^^ ZMP and
without more ado (except makhig sure
thatyourmodemis switched onD. type
AT OaErrOENI. You should see OK
prbted in response. You can use thisto
cliedt whether your modem is sv^hed

modem pt^blemsJnthiy^sfTOmmis

bonanza

BThaveberaamtlieprqcessofin^lliiig ?
these Im" the lastfewyears buti^eBeve
there mhy stiB be somel^ Idft .
alterJotind out whefeer your mode^^^^^
Shd exchange to ne dialling,

tom to) the vqlmnebh yoiflr modem
have onef, or list^ in on another
F^one extension, “atod type ATDT B21

only some or most of it. This isn't
usually a problem, so just iry the
commands to see which work, or look
at your manual.

An example of a command of the
second type is ATXn. Tills alters the
ability of the modem to dial depending
on the tone coming from th e exch ange.
For example, ATX2 tells the modem to
dial only if there is a dial tone, but not if
there isn't, ATXO tells it to dial
regardless of the dial tone. AIX also
alters the amount of ‘help’ text (called
‘Result Codes’) that the modem sends
back to your CPC to tell you what it’s
doing. For example, ATXO tells it only
to reply with the ‘Basic sef of QIC
CONNECT, RING. NO CARRIER, and
ERROR, whereas using ATXl tells it to
u se tlie ‘Extended set' - all of these, plus
telling you at what speed it has
connected Oike CONNECT 1200).

More obviously useful, is a comm and
that alters the operation of the s|)eaker
on the modem. As mentioned at the
start, the time will come when, for
example, you phone up a Bulletin
Board, it answers, and then one or the
other of the modems ‘hangs up' (in the
phone line sense, not the Oh *?!£$&
my Arnold’s “hung up” just when 1 got
14 quadrillion points on Zargon Mega-
Attack and still had 17 lives left!' sense).
If that happens, it can be q u ite useful to
listen in to the noises that the modems
are making, to compare them with the
noises you get when everything is
working. ATkfn alters when the
speaker is switched on and off. ATMO
turns it off permanently, ATMl turns it
off when you're online, and A1^12 keeps
it on permanently.

Right! 'Ihey are some of the Hayes
commands, the rest will probably be in

the appendix of your modem manual.
Supposeyou w’antto make aconnection
via modem with someone you know
personally. (This will obviously be
cheaper in some cases, and quicker,
than doing your deeds via an actual
Bulletin Board.) If you’ve arranged it
beforehand you can switch one of your
modems into auto-answer mode (if it
can) by typing A'l^= 1 [RETURN], and
then get the other modem to phone it
up, just as if it were a Bulletin Board.
When it detects the rings from tiie
phone it will answer and the two
modems should proceed to connect.
(This is in fact simply the basis for a
Bulletin Board.) The other method has
many more advantages. Here you
phone up the person concerned (or
vice-versa) so that you can talk. Then,
when youVe ready, one of you types
ATA [RETURN i and the other types
ATD [RETURN], If you’re the one
typing ATT) you may need to use AIXO
^l, since there will be no dialling
tone. ATA tells the modem to answer
immediately and so shouldn’t need an
auto-answer modem. You should hear
the normal tones and noise, and the
two modems should connect. After
connection (with eitlier metliod) you
can now chat to each other textually, or
tile transfer or whatever to your hearts
delight.

The advantages of the second
method are that if (as is sometimes the
case), the file transfer doesn't work
initially, you can just give 2MP the
[ESC] X to hang up, and pick up the
phone to sort things out. Also, due to
British Telecom’s pricing system, calls
get rounded up to the nearest 5p or so.
Reiwatedly phoning the other guy up
until you get it right can come to a lot of

money compared to the cost of the
actual time online.

If you load upZMP and type [ESC ] C
M you bring up the modem command
configuration menu. Option A is the
string to send to the modem to inidalise
it. I currently have this set to
ATZ!—^ATVIXI!- ATZ resets the
modem's registers, AT\'l tells it to use
words for the result codes (instead of
numerical codes), the T tells ZMP to
send a [RETURN 1 character and the ‘~’
tells ZMP to pause for a second or so.
As described above, option B is set to

ATDT, etc.

Whew! Okay, chew that over while I
talk about trivia. In case you hadn’t
already noticed, Christmas has come
and gone again. Remember last year?
When your little brother unravelled
the tape from your new game? When
gran tripped over the cable of your n ew
mouse? When the joystick broke after
playing Daley Thompson’s Decathlon
17 times (‘fraid I'm a bit out of touch
with the games scene!). “What has thi.s
got to do with Comms?’, you probably
won’t be asking. Well TU tell you. Not
much. Except that would n't it have been
nice to get a modem for Christmas?

Tliat about switches it off for this
month . Next month 111 be writing about
something different. 1 hope to be doing
a review or a rundown of modems and
commercial bulletin boards in the
nearish future, so watch this space.
Incidentally, Surface UK are selling a
very reasonable 2400bps modem (by
Supra) for £120, about the cheapest
Tve seen yet Hope you had a merry
Christmasand haveaHappy New Year!

A = 300/300 CV21) B = 1200/1300 (V22) C = 2400/3400 (\'32bis) D = 1200/75 (V23) E = V32 (one of tlie 9600bps
standards) F = HST (another of the 9600bps standards). All entries are N-8-1, and are operative 24 hours a day unless
otherwise specified as Mon-Fri hours, then Sat/Sun hours.

ACE CENTRE

Headington

086564958

ABCD

ADULLAMSCAW

Southend

0702 78330

ABCD

CUFF'S CORNER

Lowestoft

0502 518274

ABCD M-F:220ai000 S/S;24 Hrs

COLNmg

Colchester

0206 763789

ABCD

ARCADE

Addiscombe

081 654 2212

AliCD

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